


Good old fashioned lover boy - Good Omens ineffable husbands

by AceBookworm



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Angels, Aziraphale Loves Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale is "just enough of a bastard to be worth knowing" (Good Omens), Best Friends, Bottom Crowley (Good Omens), Canon - TV, Crowley Loves Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley Needs a Hug (Good Omens), Crowley is Bad at Feelings (Good Omens), Crowley is Good With Kids (Good Omens), Demons, Discorporation (Good Omens), Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Romance, Falling In Love, Gay, Genderfluid Crowley (Good Omens), Hurt Crowley, Idiots in Love, Ineffable Idiots (Good Omens), Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, Overwhelmed Crowley (Good Omens), POV Crowley (Good Omens), Post-Almost Apocalypse (Good Omens), Post-Canon, Post-Scene: The Ritz (Good Omens), Protective Crowley, Requited Love, Snake Crowley (Good Omens), Soft Aziraphale (Good Omens), Top Crowley (Good Omens), demonic flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:20:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 25,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23029204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceBookworm/pseuds/AceBookworm
Summary: Armageddon has been averted. Their body swap was successful. The powers of both Heaven and Hell are fully freaked out by both of their ‘immunity’s’.Seems their both finally free.Crowley and Aziraphale are enjoying their dinner at the Ritz when Crowley is called to back to Hell - only one problem, he doesn't come back. With Aziraphale so worried he can't even read a book, what could have happened to Aziraphale's favourite demon, and will he ever get the chance to tell Crowley how he truly feels?This book now has a sequel! Check out Book 2, 'Little Wings' here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23562583/chapters/56527759
Relationships: Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Comments: 60
Kudos: 96





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This book now has a sequel! Check out Book 2, 'Little Wings' here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23562583/chapters/56527759

Chapter 1:  
“To the world” Crowley raised his champagne glass.  
“To the world” Aziraphale cooed dreamily, chinking their glasses together with a soft ‘ting’ before they both took a celebratory sip.  
Armageddon has been averted. Their body swap was successful. The powers of both Heaven and Hell are fully freaked out by both of their ‘immunity’s’.  
Seems their both finally free.

Aziraphale begins excitedly telling Crowley all about his brief time spent in Crowley’s form. How exciting he had found Hell, how much he enjoyed splashing holy water at that glass window! How it was really jolly good fun, being a demon for a day.  
“It suited you” grins Crowley.  
“Oh shush you” Aziraphale is blushes, secretly rather flattered!

So Aziraphale eats and Crowley gazes at him from behind his shades as always.  
Aziraphale is fully aware of Crowley’s gazing. Mostly because he often gazes back!  
When had the Angel fallen head over heels for his demon? Answer; almost immediately, that very first day, on the wall of Eden.  
He’s just had to be...careful about it all these years, is all.  
He so DOES hope that Crowley knows this. That he wasn’t rejecting him because the Angel didn’t want him, but because Aziraphale didn’t want Crowley to end up in a REAL holy water bath.  
Do they have to worry about that any more? Aziraphale isn’t sure. They’ve certainly scared Heaven and Hell witless, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t come back upon hearing of an Angel and Demon couple.  
That still scared Aziraphale. Not for himself, but for Crowley. He doesn’t want his demon hurt because of him.  
He’d rather end up falling then hurt Crowley in some way!

The power of that thought makes Aziraphale’s stomach drop - yet he knows it to be true.  
“Well” Crowley says now, placing down his drained champagne glass. “That’s our promised dinner at the Ritz. I believe next on the list was a picnic.”  
Aziraphale gives a weak smile, “perhaps we can do that tomorrow.”  
Crowley, even through his dark shades, can see straight through the Angel he’s come to know so well. He sits up a little - a rare sight for Crowley - and adopts a serious air. “Whatcha worrying about now Angel?”  
Seems he really does now Aziraphale well! “Just” Aziraphale runs a finger around the rim of his champagne glass. “It’s just that, Heaven and Hell may be scared off for now, but that doesn’t mean we’re safe. They’ll be back.”  
“Probably” Crowley agrees thoughtfully. He pauses. Aziraphale’s can see his mind tick. “But I doubt they’ll try executing us again, Angel.”  
“Oh, I’m not worried about THAT” Aziraphale says, before he’s thought about what he’s saying.  
Oh.  
Oh no.  
An eyebrow cocks up from behind Crowley’s shades.  
“What are you worried about then?” The demon asks, reasonably.

Aziraphale finds he’s sweating. “Right. Well, um...”  
Oh jeez, he’s walked himself right into this one! Perhaps he can lie or bluff his way out of it? After all, he isn’t CERTAIN Crowley even feels the same way about him. Even if he did, there’s the risks to consider. Which is EXACTLY what Aziraphale IS worried about.  
But he can hardly tell Crowley that.  
Can he?  
Crowley is waiting, eyebrow still raised, leaning forward across the table, leant on folded elbows in intrigue now.  
Oh dear, what a pickle.  
Crowley suddenly seems to hear something, because his head turns as if he’s heard his name called from across the room.

“Uugghhh!” Crowley rolls his entire head before meeting Aziraphale’s confused gaze through his shades. “I’m sorry Angel, I gotta motor. Hell calls.”  
“Oh!” Aziraphale does a terrible job of hiding the pure, sweet, life saving relief that washes over him!  
Crowley begins to get up, “don’t think I’ll forget about this though!” He says, pointing at his Angel. “Their will be some questions when I get back!”  
“Oh, no problem! Tickedy-boo!” Aziraphale is suddenly sweating again.  
Crowley shakes his head in bemusement, “that’s STILL a weird thing to say” he comments, before he strolls off, calling over his shoulder, “see you soon Angel!”  
Real soon, Aziraphale hopes. Despite his embarrassment, he’s not used to Crowley being gone too long.  
He hopes it’s a short visit to Hell.

**** 

Okay, Aziraphale is beginning to get worried now. Crowley has been gone for three whole days!  
Crowley has never, ever stayed gone this long. He only usually stays in Hell long enough to either report in or come up with some new scheme, like the M25. Usually a few hours, max.  
Never DAYS.

Oh dear. What if they called him back to finish what they started?  
What if they wanted to test this holy water ‘immune’ demon for a second time? To see if lightning struck twice?  
Oh Heavens! Aziraphale should have volunteered to go in his place again. Stupid stupid stupid! If he hadn’t of been so flustered at the time, maybe he would have seen a threat in Crowley’s sudden invitation down to Hell. What was he going to do now?  
It seemed what he was going to do now was simple; worry himself to death.

Aziraphale usually doesn’t care for being on his feet for too long, but by the sixth hour of Crowley being gone he’s pacing his bookshop.  
By nightfall, not a single book has been read, but the form flooring is starting to look scraped from all the times Aziraphale has circled it.  
By the first morning, not a morsel of food has been eaten, nor a simple drop of tea drunk! Aziraphale just spends the whole day consumed with worry, staring out the shop window, watching for Crowley.

By the second day, Aziraphale has taken a more active role. He finds himself plodding the streets of London, checking all their shares favourite places. The park, their bench, the duck pond, the Ritz.  
Finally, Aziraphale ends up banging loudly on the door to Crowley’s apartment.  
But the apartment is cold, empty, silent. No one comes to the door.

By day three Aziraphale is five seconds away from pulling his hair out! He calls Crowley’s home and mobile phone more then a hundred times that day, but just gets Crowley’s voice mail or answering machine every time.  
By the afternoon of day three, Aziraphale is in tears, so distressed he feels ready to plunge into that upward stream of Hell fire for real. He's sure that something terrible has happened to Crowley by now, he can feel it in his bones, and even if he weren't so terribly worried (which he is) he'd still miss Crowley desperately.  
He’s never known a world without Crowley. Crowley has been his one consistent across these six thousand years, one Aziraphale had quickly come to both love and admire. Without him, Aziraphale feels like all his vital organs (if he has any organs vital to his survival) have been scooped out. Or that he’s missing a leg. Or perhaps an arm.  
It doesn’t matter, he just feels...half empty.  
And the pain is sharp, real and poisonous.

He aches for Crowley. To see him laugh again, to witness those unblinking golden snake eyes of his again, to hear his voice, to smell his warm, fiery smell.  
Aziraphale misses Crowley more then anything in the world. He begins feeling like he’d give up everything just to spend five more minutes with his demon. The bookshop, his position as an Angel, heck, he’d give up all of Heaven.  
If it meant Crowley would come home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the feedback I've received so far, and for all the reads :D

Chapter 2:  
I hadn’t MEANT to discover the biggest conspiracy in Heavenly history.  
I was just strolling into Hell, wondering why I had been summoned and forced to leave Aziraphale mid Ritz dinner, when I happened to pass by Beelzebub, whispering to the fellow managers of Hell.  
“And it’s the oddest thing! I can’t remember our side having anything to do with the set up of that whole Antichrist business at all” Beelzebub was saying.   
That, of course, froze me in my tracks for obvious reasons. I listened from behind a wall for a few moments more as the other demons agreed about being equally confused as to how this whole thing had went down, then I decided to take a more active role.  
I stepped out from behind the wall and with a fast snap of my fingers, sent my fellow demons into a trance, where I could shake their brain washed memories loose and get them to tell me the whole story.  
Shocked, wasn’t a big enough word for what I felt.

Beelzebub and the other managers had been totally brain washed by the Archangel fucking Gabriel, along with Michael, but mostly fucking Gabriel. So, I freed my fellow demons from this brainwashing with a click of my fingers, and they told me the whole story.  
The Angels, it seemed, had single handled created the future Adam Young, convinced Beelzebub - who had in turn told the rest of Hell - that this was the son of our master, and it bloody WASN’T.  
Heaven - well, Gabriel to be sure, wanted his war. He wanted to squash Hell like a bug beneath his smug foot, so he planned this whole thing and pinned it on us, so that Heaven in general would have good reason to go to war with Hell. Did he CARE that humanity would die in the process? Nope! Just so long as his side won, and as for Satan rising up from the Earth to scold his son? Turns out, he had known the truth all along, and was only playing along to prove a point to Heaven, that his side was right, and theirs WRONG.  
I had been wondering why the down Father Himself had been so easily beaten!  
So that’s how I found out the truth. That the Antichrist was all HEAVEN’S doing and most likely God Herself never wanted any of this. It seemed not even Satan Himself wanted this! It was NEVER part of the ‘great plan’ or whatever.  
It was all the Archangel Fucking Gabriel and his gang of ‘oh so perfect’ archangels.  
And Aziraphale trusts those fuckers!!!

Stunned by this information, I quickly raced out of Hell to warn Aziraphale that he was dealing with crazy people! I didn’t want him to get hurt by their lies for a single moment more.   
I had just come up onto the surface of Earth in the streets of London and took a step towards Aziraphale’s bookshop when something large and heavy struck me in the back of the head.  
Satan only knows how Gabriel and his goons knew I had found out their big secret. Perhaps they had done some release gag on Beelzebub and the others, so they would know if the information ever left their lips.   
It matters not, because the next thing I knew, I was tied down to a metal slab table, like the kind they have in human morgues, in some filthy warehouse. I don’t know where, but it was defiantly Earth. I’d know the smell of that planet anywhere.  
The ropes were doused in holy water. Not enough to do me any serious harm, but just a light enough sprinkling to keep me in enough pain to immobilise me. They tied down each of my fingers and toes insidiously, along with each part of my body, so I can’t move a single inch of myself to miracle myself out of there.

Gabriel and his goons interrogate me for days. They wanted to know if I’d passed this information about them on to anyone yet.  
I knew if I said I hadn’t told anyone they’d kill me immediately. So my best option was to stall until I figured something else out.   
So, I told them I had told multiple demons. Hundreds actually! Then they demanded names, which I refused to give, so they tried to torture the information out of me by dropping further holy water on me or by cutting me with angelic holy weapons. None of the wounds were serious enough to kill me on their own, but they are mounting.  
I talk a lot during this time. Perhaps the pain is making me lose lipped because I speak a lot about how I feel about this whole Heaven-vs-Hell situation and how stupid I find it all.  
I think at one point I even asked why we couldn’t all just work together., why CAN’T there be an ‘our side’, as I often say to Aziraphale. Which is true to how I really feel, but not something I’d usually admit to out loud. Very undemonic thoughts, those. 

By day two, my injuries were many and I was in some pretty serious agony, and I was beginning to lose strength.  
I considered just letting go, allowing myself to discorporate, but remembering Aziraphale stopped me doing that. Who knows how long it would take the powers of Hell to assign me a new body, and I knew Aziraphale was going to be worried enough as it was, with me being missing for two days.  
I do hope he wasn’t TOO worried. We’d spent time apart before, but always with prior notice. If we weren’t going to see each other for more than even a day, we’d always let each other know, because we were both fully aware that the other would worry otherwise. I would worry about him, and he would worry about me, weather we admitted that out loud or not was a completely different issue. We both just knew it to be true.  
I’d never just vanished without a phone call, or a note, or leaving Aziraphale some kind of sign that I might not be back for a while but was otherwise okay.  
Which meant Aziraphale was probably in a right tizzy right now. 

It was Aziraphale, or rather the mention of him, that REALLY set me off.  
The two Archangel goons had left. Gone on Gabriel’s orders to get ‘a more damaging weapon’. So I was alone with him on the morning of the third day. That’s when Gabriel decides to get up close and personal with me, leaning in real close and smirking at me as I glared right back.   
“Who did you tell about this, Crowley?” He asks me. His voice manages to be both soft and cold. So evil and yet so fake in its purity that it’s unnerving. He leans in closer. I’m tempted to spit on him. I resist. If I do that, he might harm me bad enough to discorporate me and I can’t have that. “Did you tell your little Angelic boyfriend, Aziraphale?” He taunts, right in my ear.   
I stiffen at the mention of his name before I can stop myself.  
“Ahh, so you DID” Beams Gabriel. He leans away. “Guess we’ll be paying him a little VISIT then.”  
My teeth grind so badly it’s a wonder they don’t spark, “if you DARE go near him.”  
“You’ll do what?” Gabriel laughs, eyeing my restraints.   
I glare at him, suddenly feeling very, very hot indeed.

“Now, I’m going to go ask Aziraphale some friendly questions” Gabriel smiles smugly. “You wait here Pussycat.”  
I knew what kind of ‘questions’ Gabriel would be asking. The kind that involved torture and endless pain, never allowing time enough to heal. A see a flash of an image in my mind, my Angel, strapped to a death table in some dark horrible warehouse just the way I am right now. His beautiful face twisted in pain, him crying out for rescue.  
I can hear him now. He’d yell for ME, because I’ve been saving his butt since the Garden.  
And I won’t be able to come, because I’m strapped to a table of death of my own.

My teeth grind, and the heat inside of me builds.  
The very idea of him touching my Angel...  
The sound of Aziraphale crying out in pain...  
The image of him begging for me, and I can’t be there...  
Hotter, hotter and hotter I become, until -   
I explode in a violent scream, and, to my own horror, a fire bursts directly out of my skin and catches the room around me ablaze. I hear Gabriel scream in agony, as I realise with a jolt.  
It’s not just any fire. It’s Hell fire! 

My very body is ablaze with it, yet my clothes do not simmer. I focus my attention on the ropes tying me down, and the fire spreads in that direction obediently.  
Satan below!  
I can CONTROL this?!  
SINCE WHEN CAN I COMMAND HELL FIRE?!

The fire burns through my ropes and I stumble off the table, putting the fires out quickly.  
Gabriel is on the floor. He’s black all over with burns, and he’s just about breathing. I would say I was about one second away from killing an Archangel.  
I can’t think about any of that now though as I stagger, the pain of my own injuries catching up with me. I’ve got sever holy water burns and holy weapon cuts all over me, and I won’t last much longer.   
So I teleport down to Hell with a click of my fingers, and begin screaming for help.  
The last thing I see before I pass out is my fellow demons running to my aid. 

It’s safe to say that I, Anthony J Crowley, am on my death bed.  
The pain is immense. My body is doing the best it can to heal, but the injuries are seemingly too much for it to cope.  
However, this is not something I even pause to consider. As soon as I regain consciousness, I begin telling the demons who and to my aid the whole story. They panic as much as I did, and immediately report it directly to Satan. I beg, “someone warn Aziraphale, someone warn Aziraphale!” over and over again until my fellow demons promise to pass the message onto Satan, who will, without doubt, tell God.  
Once I know this - once I know Aziraphale will be informed and he’ll be safe, I run out of strength…  
I don’t say an more after that.  
I can’t.  
I’m too busy dying…..


	3. 3

Chapter 3:  
Aziraphale is curled up on the sofa of his bookshop, the blinds drawn and the sign flipped to close as he listens to the pour of rain outside. The round hums for the beat of his own tears.  
He doesn’t suppose he’s ever cried this much before.  
It’s late into the night of day three, and Aziraphale has pretty much lost all hope of seeing Crowley again.  
If he ever DOES get the chance to see Crowley again, he’s asking him to be his boyfriend IMMEDIATELY. Aziraphale wont let Crowley slip through his fingers a second time.

Just then, the summoning circle begins to hum from beneath its rug.  
Wiping his eyes and straightening his bow tie, Aziraphale forces himself up off the sofa, dragging himself over to the rug and pulling it away to reveal the summoning circle beneath.  
It glows, before a Heavenly light ascends upon it.  
“Aziraphale.”  
The Angel freezes.  
It’s Her.   
“Mother” Aziraphale bows suddenly, dusting down his clothes and straightening them out hurriedly.   
If he knew he was going to be talking to God Herself today, he’d have worn his best suit! 

“I have received word you helped stop the Adam Young, Aziraphale” says God, calmly. Her voice ever soothing, and yet powerful. Like a being full of both love and rage at the same time.  
“Well” Aziraphale isn’t sure how to respond. Gabriel tried to BURN him for that offence, for Pete’s sake.  
Goodness knows what God Herself will do.  
“I’m very pleased” says God, warmly.

Aziraphale feels like his mind is the equivalent of a glass falling off a table and smashing to the ground.  
“W-what Mother?” Aziraphale stammers.  
“Yes, it all came to my attention when I found out a demon had been kidnapped. One Anthony J Crowley, grabbed off the street on his way up from Hell three day’s ago.”  
Aziraphale makes a strangled noise in the back of his throat. So Crowley has tried to come home, but he’d been stopped. But how? Why? By whom?!  
“He was kidnapped by my Archangels, none the less” God tells sadly. “Gabriel and the others.”  
Aziraphale feels a ‘I knew it!” Stab in his heart.  
“Is...is Crowley okay?” He whispers.  
“The demon has received serious wounds” God tells gently. “Hell tells me he likely won’t survive.”  
Aziraphale cries out, howling as he throws his head into his hands, shaking violently.

Just then, gentle hands touch down on his shoulders.  
He startles, looking up to see God - in human form!   
Aziraphale has never seen the Mother in human form before. She’s a vision, with platinum hair so blonde it looks white. She wears it in a long, Greek Goddess plait down Her left shoulder. Contrasting Aziraphale’s light, pale skin, God had given Herself chocolate brown skin and lovely blue eyes. She wore a similar Greek white flowing robe gown, similar to what Aziraphale used to wear in the Garden. She stands slightly taller then her Angel, and is bare foot.   
“You love him, don’t you?” God smiles in a beautiful, motherly fashion.  
Tears are streaming down Aziraphale’s face. There’s no point in denying it now. At this point, he’s willing to lose everything. “Yes Mother, I do” Aziraphale admits bravely despite his shaking bottom lip. “And…I’ll give up my position, if it means his life. I’ll do anything. I’d save him, even if it killed me.”  
God is just looking at him, almost as if She’s waiting, before She speaks. “You would become Fallen for him?”  
“Yes” Aziraphale decrees.  
Silence.

“Aziraphale, my brave child” the Allmother coos. “I will send a miracle to heal your heal. He shall be back to perfect health very soon.”  
Aziraphale feels as if his mind shatters like glass.  
“W-what Mother?” he really can’t cope with this without Crowley at his side.  
“I will save him, I promise you that much” the Mother tells. “I owe him that much anyway.”  
Aziraphale’s mind races to play catchup, “so… you’ll make sure Crowley is okay?”  
“I promise” God smiles, lovingly.  
Aziraphale is so happy he gives a little jump, forcing God to take Her hands off his shoulder as Aziraphale lets out a squee of pure glee! “Oh THANK YOU Mother!” he gushes.

God chuckles softly. Her laugh is like the chime of a merry church bell. “Aziraphale my love, your demon has single handedly uncovered something very disturbing .”  
Knowing Crowley is going to be okay has completely dried Aziraphale’s tears, now he’s just plain intrigued! “what’s that?” He asks.  
“The Antichrist was orchestrated by Gabriel and the other Archangels, who then convinced Beelzebub and the other managers of Hell that it was their idea. They wanted to win the war between Heaven and Hell, not caring that they would end humanity in the process” God shakes Her head sadly.  
Aziraphale can also hear the record player of his mind scratch to a halt.  
Wait.  
What?  
“I - I don’t understand” Aziraphale babbles, unable to process. “I thought YOU wanted Armageddon.”  
“Oh honey, is that what Gabriel said? No dear, that’s not what I want. Why would I EVER want to harm my wonderful creatures?” God asks softly.  
Aziraphale makes a fresh choking sound.

“I want you to forget everything Gabriel and his so called friends told you, because none of it EVER came from me” God tells. “All three of them have been fired, I shall be removing their wings, and they shall be spending a very long time in Hell for their sins. I mean, whatever kind of Angel wants to end humanity? That’s not what I created you for!”  
Aziraphale had been having the same nagging feeling for centuries now. That maybe his higher ups were liars and they didn’t TRULY speak for God. Crowley had tried to tell him so too, but Aziraphale didn’t want to believe it. He thought listening to those doubts was going against God, when it seemed those doubts were actually the way to run right to Her.  
Crowley had been right about so much for so long, and Aziraphale had called him a liar and a deceiver.   
Aziraphale finds he’s trembling  
“Crowley” he manages. “I need to see him.”  
Right now, Aziraphale’s entire world is upside down, and there’s only one person in this whole universe who can set it right for him, and that’s Crowley.  
It has been, and it always will be, Crowley.

“Of course dear” God waves a beautiful hand and a white glow travels off into the ground. “He’ll be healing up now, and I have no doubt he’ll come straight home as soon as he’s well.” She smiles.  
Aziraphale feels the need to bow, so he does. “Oh thank you Mother!”  
“And Aziraphale?” She who is All That Begins smiles.  
“Yes?”  
“Have you noticed you still have your job, despite telling me you’re in love with a demon?” God almost teases warmly.  
Aziraphale blinks. He hadn’t really had time to process that yet, but yes! He had confessed his love for Crowley right to God’s face, and here he still was, an active Angel. She hadn’t fired him on the spot, as he’d been fearing all these years.  
So…what does that mean?

“My dear, I fully endorse and even encourage ANY kind of relationship you want to have with Crowley” God tells. “Always have done, from the Beginning.”  
If Aziraphale couldn’t cope before, he REALLY can’t cope now.  
“I - but - but - I” he stammers.  
God giggles prettily, “Truth is dear, I MADE you two for each other.” She Who Is All giggles. “You’re soul mates, literally. Made to complete each other. It was my Great Plan for you two to be together from the Beginning. Then you spent six thousand years pining after each other and I realised I accidentally made a couple of clueless idiots!”  
Okay, Aziraphale has gone past ‘not coping’ into some odd flux state where NOTHING makes any sense.  
“Wait, You...you wouldn’t of minded if Crowley and I had been together all these years then?” Aziraphale whispers, the last of his tears streaming softly down upon his face.  
“No dear, that’s what I’m trying to tell you. As you know, Satan, or as I knew him, Samuel, started wondered if maybe our two sides weren’t so different after all. So, knowing that I had made you two purposefully perfect for each other anyway, Satan agreed to send Crowley up to Eden, as a sort of test. Perhaps, if you two could overcome your own differences, then so could Samuel and I. Think of the two of you as like us…testing the waters, answering the question ‘can two sides who are supposed to dislike each other, learn to see past all that?’. It seems, you can! This is the news Samuel and I have been WAITING for.”  
Aziraphale is so stunned he can’t speak.

“Now” God is glowing She’s so pleased. “Perhaps Samuel and I can have those peace talks. Perhaps we can just an end to ALL wars. If one Angel and demon can find their way to love, maybe so can we.”

“Heaven….wouldn’t of fired me for being with Crowley?” Aziraphale’s mind is still playing catch up.  
“No dear, nor would of Hell killed, or indeed harm Crowley in any way for it” God assures. “It’s what both sides have been WAITING for, silly. Couldn’t you feel that? Couldn’t you feel deep in your heart that you wanted Crowley more than ANYTHING, dear?”  
Yes, Aziraphale could feel that. He’d always just been too scared to follow those feelings because of -  
Gabriel.  
He wanted a war. He created the not-so-Antichirst-Antichrist. He was there, right from the Beginning of time, telling Aziraphale all about how Hell would destroy Crowley, how Heaven would take Aziraphale’s wings for so much as TALKING to each other.   
He’s been doing that because he KNEW Samuel (aka Satan) and God were waiting to start peace talks based on Crowley’s and Aziraphale’s relationship! No relationship, no peace! You couple that with ‘Hell’ creating the Antichrist, and suddenly you have an all out war.

It all fits. Like a puzzle finally finding its pieces.

All these years, the only reason he’s been turning Crowley down is because he was scared of what Hell would do to his precious demon - and of becoming Fallen himself.   
Now he finds that literally everybody in both worlds was WAITING for them to get together?! That nothing bad would have happened to EITHER of them?!  
‘You go to fast for me Crowley’.  
‘We’re hereditary enemies.’  
‘You’re a demon, lying what you DO.’

All those terrible things he’s said to Crowley. All the pain Crowley couldn’t hide behind his shades that those words caused.  
‘I’m going home, Angel, and when I’m off in the stars, I won’t even THINK about you.’  
Oh Crowley. All that pain.   
All....for no reason?!   
All because Aziraphale had been too busy believing Gabriel’s lies to stop and ask questions about if this is truly what GOD wanted.  
He’s been such a FOOL.

“Well, I shall leave the two of you to reunite” God tells gently. “Things are going to change from now on Aziraphale. Crowley has proved to me that my Angels can be bad, and that Demons can be good. This is indeed a historic day. It could mean peace, for both worlds. No more wars, no more sides, no one one breed fearing the other” God tells. She smiles. “It was Crowley who said as much, actually, whilst the poor thing was being tortured. He said ‘wouldn’t it be better for everyone if both sides just worked TOGETHER to care for and run the world? Our ideals aren’t so different when you strip away the pride’. He said, ‘can’t we all just be on ‘our’ side’. I found that to be very inspiring.”  
Aziraphale’s heart pounds. Sounds like Crowley alright!  
“He’s right, we can all be on OUR side, from now on” God smiles.  
‘Our side’ Crowley’s favourite phrase.  
Crowley has really done it. Single handedly, he’s managed to truly create what he always wanted to happen.

“Enjoy each other now” God says as She steps back into the Heavenly ray of light. “I have a feeling you two have a lot of lost time to make up for.”  
Then She’s gone with a Heavenly hum.  
Aziraphale stands there, too shocked to move.   
Everything’s changed, just like that.  
And it’s all thanks to -

The jingle of the shop bell.  
The familiar smell of Hell fire and fresh plants.  
“ANGEL!” yells his voice.  
HIS voice.  
Aziraphale has never run to the door so fast in his LIFE.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:  
The shadows in Hell tell me it’s the evening.  
When I feel a warm, Heavenly rush soak throughout my entire body. It feels a lot like Aziraphale’s healing magic, only hopped up on some serious steroids to give it a power boost like no other.  
It feels like...the touch of God.

Then I give a rare blink, and sit up. Realising in shock that every holy water burn and every angelic weapon slice on my skin, has been healed.  
I’m fine again!  
I don’t even pause to ask questions or seek further truth about what happened to Gabriel or anything else. I simply scramble out of the bed, throw on a fresh pair of clothes (as the last pair was covered in my own blood) grab my shades and head for Earth as fast as my legs will carry me.

I do hope Aziraphale hasn’t been TOO worried about me! 

**** 

I swing open the door to the bookshop so violently it’s a wonder I don’t break the glass.  
“ANGEL!” I tell, tearing off my glasses and chucking them aside.  
Running footstep, and before my brain can process what my snake eyes are seeing, Aziraphale has flung himself on me, and I’m forced to catch him.  
“CROWLEY!!!!!” Aziraphale is in the worst state of his life. He’s dishevelled, dusty, his clothes rumpled even though they look like they got a recent pat-down for dust, which didn’t help much. He’s pale, trembling, nearing hyperventilation as tears stream down his beautiful pale cheeks.  
“Oh Angel” I coo, overwhelmed by the state I’ve found my lovely Angel in. I knew he would be worried about me, but I never expected it to be this bad. Aziraphale is has my jacket in balls, clasped tight in his first as he sobs heavily into my chest. Feeling awkward and guilty, I wind my arms around his waist, interlacing my fingers upon his lower back. “Shhh, shh darling” I find myself soothing, rocking us gently to and fro. “I’m here now, everything’s okay.”

Aziraphale snivels sadly, resting his chin on my chest so he peer up at me that beautiful, beautiful face on his, his lovely grey eyes slick with tears. “Are you okay?” He asks in a worried little hiccup. “Are you hurt at all?” His eyes widen sweetly. “Let me see!” he leans away, patting me all over for wounds.  
“No, I’m fine Angel, fine” I assure him quickly.  
“Good” my Angel breathes, satisfied, he leans back in and rests his head in the crook of my shoulder. I rock him.  
“Angel” I say softly after a moment, feeling his trembling form beneath my fingertips. “You’re shaking. Perhaps we should sit down.”  
Aziraphale gives a brave nod.

Placing guiding hands around Aziraphale, I kick the front door shut behind him as I lead my quivering Angel over to the sofa. Aziraphale’s bookshop has this cosy little seating area, with a big soft sofa and matching double armchair in front of a false fire that produces real heat. I guide Aziraphale gently into the sofa, then briefly let’s go of Aziraphale so I can round the sofa myself.  
Aziraphale whimpers and opens his arms longingly, begging to be held again. In a panicked rush to comfort him, I sit down beside my Angel as quickly as I can, to which Aziraphale responds by enveloping me in a fresh hug, flopping against his demon and continuing to sob.  
If I’m honest, this is all a bit overwhelming! I’ve never seen my beautiful Angel in such a state, and we demons are exactly trained to handle emotional situations like this. I haven’t a clue on how to handle someone mid crying fit!  
But, feeling brave, I do the only thing I know how to do. I wrap my arms around him, and stroke his back. “There there Angel” I say softly. “Every thing’s okay now.”

“Oh I’m sorry I’m making such a fuss” Aziraphale snivels into me, still clutching my jacket in his fists like he’s afraid I’ll vanish if he lets go. “You’re the one who was kidnapped! I’m just making a silly fuss about nothing.”  
“Nonsense Angel!” I say firmly. I may not know much about emotion comfort, but I know when my Angel is talking rubbish. “You must have been worried sick. You have every right to be upset, I would be too, shoe on the other foot.”  
Aziraphale gives a sniffle and peers up at me with large, hopeful eyes, “really?” He whispers.  
“Of course!” I say certainly. “When you discorporated the day the world didn’t end, I was about five seconds of storming the nearest church and drowning myself in holy water, and you’d only been gone, like, an hour!”   
This wins a tiny giggle, and a massive smile from me! I got him laughing, that means I’m cheering him up! “You never were” Aziraphale says through a watery smile.  
“No I was” I tell him honestly, my voice full of firm conviction. “This world wouldn’t be worth living in without you, Angel. And when I thought you were gone, I couldn’t bare to go on even for an hour. So I can’t IMAGINE what it must have been like, believing you may not see me again for three whole days. You must have been very brave to hold together this long.”  
Aziraphale gives a sad little nod, then his bottom lip gives another wobble.  
I give him a squeeze. “You cry Angel, you let it all out. You’ve earned it, its okay now.”  
Aziraphale begins sobbing a fresh batch of tears into my chest. With each tear, he’s releasing every minute he spent worrying. With every fear, he’s losing a minute of fear. With every tear, he’s letting he’s pure relief over my safety out.

I just sit there, acting like a living pillow. I allow my lovely Angel to cry as much as he needs to, sobbing out the last three days of pain as I rub his back and hum softly to him.  
“You’re doing really well Aziraphale” I tell him softly. “You wanna tell me about it?”  
Aziraphale gives a shy little nod, sniffling, his cheek pressed against my chest, listening to my heart as if checking its still beating. “Oh Crowley, its been so awful. By earlier today, I was ready to pitch myself into Hell fire. As you said about me, this world isn’t worth being in without you.”  
Hearing my own words back to me is a pretty big shock. I say those kinds of things often. I’ve never been shy about my feelings towards Aziraphale, but my Angel has always been a lot more reserved. There were times I wondered if he was really just acting that way for our safety or if he truly wasn’t interesting in me. That was something I struggled with a lot.  
Now it seems, my Angels feels as incomplete without me as I do him.

“My beautiful Angel” I coo at him, wiping a tear from his soft, pale, lovely cheek. “You don’t have to cry so love. Every thing’s okay now. I’m never, ever going anywhere again. In fact, from this point on I shall make sure to keep myself in perfect health, just for you.”  
This wins another giggle, as my lovely Angel, with his vastly beautiful eyes, peers up at me, “and you’re sure you’re okay?”   
“I’m fine, really I am. Every thing’s okay now, is all.”  
“Do…do you wanna talk about it?” Aziraphale asks me softly.  
Do I?  
The ropes, the table, the torture…  
I feel a sting of the pain returning with the memories. I shut my eyes to bolt them out. “No” I say firmly.  
“Okay dear” I feel Aziraphale’s gentle hand stroke my cheek. “You don’t have to, not now, not ever if you don’t want to, but I just want you to know that I’m here, if you need me.”  
I open my eyes and gaze at my Angel, and Aziraphale gives me a smile. 

Oh Satan below, I LOVE Aziraphale’s smile. If you ask me, Aziraphale is the most beautiful, the most stunning, the most perfect being in creation. I love every inch of him. His curly hair, so blonde it looks white when it catches the light. His eyes, so grey they reflect the rainbow like a diamond. His warm, cosy figure that makes me want to snuggle into him like a giant teddy bear. Every single thing about Aziraphale is perfect, and I will never, ever hear any arguments otherwise.   
A last few tears roll down Aziraphale’s cheeks. I snap my fingers and miracle up a box of tissues, passing them to my love.  
“Oh thank you my boy, thank you for letting me have a good weep.” Aziraphale says, apparently feeling stable enough to sit up up on his own now, leaning away slightly as he wipes away the last of his tears. “Nice to see you in full working order, miracles and all” he glows proudly as he dabs his eyes.  
I chuckle, “Nice to BE in full working order, Angel.”  
Aziraphale’s trembling has stopped and his breathing is getting steadier by the minute. He’s calming, and I guess I had something to do with that!

I feel a glow of pride heat my chest.   
Ah! That reminds me.  
“You won’t believe what I can do” I grin.  
Aziraphale gives me his question in a look of intrigue.  
“I can create and control Hell fire! Right out of my very body!” I beam proudly.  
Aziraphale’s eyes widen in amazement, “you never can!”  
“I can!” I beam, sitting up straight with pure pride. “That’s how I escaped. I nearly turned the Archangel Gabriel into an overcooked Sunday lunch!”   
Aziraphale bursts into laughter, and I cackle merrily along with him! The two of us laughing side by side as we did the day after the world didn’t end.

“That’s amazing!” Aziraphale glows proudly at me, back to himself now, and I couldn’t be more pleased!

“Yeah” I chuckle, then pause thoughtfully. “Suppose I best learn to control that properly mind, don’t wanna end up singeing my Angel when I’m mid plant-rant.”  
Now that I’ve said this worrying thought out loud, it’s really bothering me. I’m not totally sure how I managed to produce Hell fire like that, but I know it happened when I got myself angry. I don’t wanna be starting fires every time I’m pissed. Satan forbid it! I might catch Aziraphale in the crossfire. After all, I hadn’t MEANT to nearly burn Gabriel to death. The fire just burst out of me and spread, I didn’t MEAN to hurt anybody.  
Who’s to say I couldn’t do that again?  
I find myself scooting away from Aziraphale, if only by an inch.  
Aziraphale gives me a gentle look, not a speck of fear in his eyes, “I trust you” he announces, without so much as a shiver of doubt in his voice. Utter and complete trust. I don’t scare him a bit. I never have.  
That’s the best thing about Aziraphale - he trusts me. So now matter what his brain-washed Heavenly talk may say about ‘you’re a demon! You lie!’ under the surface, he has not a shred of doubt about me, and I love him for it.

Then, Aziraphale reaches over, and takes my hand in his, and my brain short-circuits.  
Aziraphale is holding my hand.  
I hear myself gulp.  
True, he was sobbing into my chest mere minutes ago, but that was different. He was upset. People cry on their best friends shoulder when their upset.  
But friends don’t usually hold hands.  
Okay, so we were also swapping passionate tales of how we were ready to die like Romeo and Juliet over losing each other just moments ago too, but that’s the kind of stuff I always say, and as for Aziraphale, well…his intentions could have been anything. I’ve been his only consistent company all these years, he could of just meant he’d be too lonely to go on without me, I suppose.  
This, however, MEANS something.

“Crowley” Aziraphale says. His tone is different. He’s winding up to say something important.   
Oh Satan, could it really be true? Could this be it?  
Could this REALLY be it?  
Stay calm Crowley, stay calm. Keep it together. Try not to get your hopes too high, I tell myself firmly.  
“Yes?” My heart is banging in my ears.  
“I love you” Aziraphale suddenly announces, locking his grey eyes with my golden. “I’ve been in love with you since the Beginning, I was just too scared for us both to say so. I want you to be my partner. I want us to be together, forever. I want to go on that picnic together. I want you to take me to see Alpha Centauri. I want...” he’s gazing at me now, his eyes intense with six thousand years worth of longing, waiting, and pining. “I want you, Crowley. Until eternity ends.” He meets my eye, and nudges closer. “Crowley, will you do me the honour of being my boyfriend?”

If this is a dream, I never want to wake up.  
“I love and want you too Angel” I’m whispering I’m so stunned. “And of COURSE I’ll be your boyfriend, until eternity ends.”  
Aziraphale leaps into my lap, smothering me with kisses and squeeing happily. “I’m the luckiest Angel in Heaven!”   
I laugh merrily as I wrap my arms around him, “And I’m the luckiest demon.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hail Satan, thanks for over 400 views, I love each and every one of you, I swear 😍😍😍

Chapter 5:  
They spent the entire night like that, on the sofa, cuddling. They don’t even watch a movie. Aziraphale doesn’t even read a book! They just sit, cuddle, kiss, and gaze at each other, until the dawn arrives, stinging our eyes as it comes through the shop window.  
Crowley hisses like a vampire as the sunshine hits his eyes, and Aziraphale laughs fondly at him!   
“I think that’s our cue darling” Aziraphale says, as we finally part, leaning away from each other and stretching. “I’m gasping for a cuppa.”  
“I’ll bet” Crowley smiles as he stands up to stretch his lengthy form. He gives a sudden jolt, “my plants!” he realises in horror. “They must be bone dry by now!”  
Aziraphale gives a happy giggle, “well, let’s go water them then!”

Onto the early morning streets of London they head. Crowley gives a whistle and a few seconds later, his Bentley comes rolling up to the pavement without a driver.   
“There she is!” beams Crowley, his shades and smile back in place. He’s whole, he’s here, he’s safe. Aziraphale smiles at him.  
Thank the Allmother, he’s got his Crowley back.  
Climbing into the Bentley feels like returning to an old friend. Hearing the radio begin to blast Queen is like sinking into nostalgia incarnate. Driving towards Crowley’s apartment is like returning to the world as it should be.  
“Any word from Heaven about the Gabriel situation?” Crowley asks as he drives. For once, he’s not speeding uncontrollably. He’s defiantly still speeding, but more like fifty in a thirty mile an hour zone rather then ninety in a thirty mile an hour zone. Aziraphale silently wonders if Crowley is doing that especially for him.  
“He’s being fired last I heard, so he clearly has recovered enough from the Hell fire burns to do that much” Aziraphale reports. “The other Archangels are being fired too.”  
“Damn” Crowley’s eyebrows raise from behind his shades. “Do you ‘uppose I’m in trouble for almost killing an Angel?”  
“No” Aziraphale smiles. “In fact, I’ll tell you all about it when we get to the apartment.”  
“I live in suspense” Crowley grins, looking at his Angel rather then at the road. As usual. But for once, Aziraphale doesn’t complain!

Crowley’s door has a golden snake door knocker. Crowley always has snake detailing, from his snake skin boots, to his snake decorated furniture, to his snake tattoo beside his right ear. Crowley has always seemed proud of his true form in that way. As the pair swing into the apartment, Aziraphale treats Crowley’s snake tattoo as a target by planting a happy kiss on it.  
“I’m so glad you’re back Crowley” Aziraphale gushes.  
“Glad to be back beautiful” Crowley smiles warmly at him.   
Inside the apartment the air is stale from having no life within its walls for the past three days. The sound of the answering machine beeping with a new message alert can be heard as Crowley waves a hand to clean the air, and as he’s looking around as if re-familiarising himself he says, “ah! That phone reminds me” he says, looking in the direction of his house phone. “Those bastards smashed my mobile.”  
“That wasn’t very nice” Aziraphale agrees, pure as ever.  
Crowley grins, “well, I’ll just whip myself up a new one and miracle over my call history and such, eh?”   
The colour drains out of Aziraphale’s face as he gives an “Oh.”

“What’s up Angel?” he asks softly, waving a hand and making his sleek, black, slim smart phone appear in his hand. Before Aziraphale can answer, the new phone in Crowley’s hand begins buzzing, flashing and vibrating so frequently its like the WW2 bomb siren. “Satan below!” Crowley stares at the very alive, still buzzing and flashing phone in his hand, his shades slipping down his nose as his golden eyes widen.  
“143 missed calls from Aziraphale” Crowley reads his screen, his snake eyes wide.  
Before a slow, Cheshire-Cat like grin spreads across Crowley’s face, “miss me Angel?” he beams cockily.  
“Shush you” blushes Aziraphale.   
“Are you the one clogging up my house phone too?” grins Crowley, heading for his study.  
“Maybe!” Aziraphale flushes, scurrying after his beloved in shame.

Crowley struts in that seriously gay, confident walk of his that’s all swaying hips and criss-crossing legs that looks overly energetic, like he just can’t wait to get where he’s going - he just happens to be prancing like the world’s gayest deer. Aziraphale just loves the way Crowley walks! He’s been secretly watching and admiring it since the dawn of time. He arrives in his black office with its red and gold matching throne-like chair and table - also with a snake decorating its front - upon which his tape-recorder house phone sits. Its red light is flashing and the phone is beeping. Crowley presses a button and in the little screen above the number pad bold letters readers ‘98 missed calls from Aziraphale.’  
Crowley laughs out loud as he clips the cassette player open and removes the tape, which has been forced to hold so many messages the tape has worn thin and snapped in two. Which explains why, when Aziraphale tried to call the 99th time, the cassette couldn’t take a single message more. 

“You broke my tape” grins Crowley. “I once trapped a demon in this you know!”   
Aziraphale is blushing, “I was worried, okay?” he says defensively.   
Crowley chuckles and pulls a marker pen from mid air. He puts the cassette tape down on the table and writes on it. Aziraphale peeks. The writing says, “Aziraphale worries about me 98 times.”   
Aziraphale laughs, “You’re never gonna keep that!”   
“It’ll prove to me that you’re really in love with me when I’m having doubts.” Crowley says, strolling over to his first draft Mona Lisa painting on his wall. He gives it a pull and it swings open like a door. A wall safe is revealed behind it. Crowley begins putting in a code by spinning its dial to and fro.  
The word ‘doubts’ sends a brief spark of panic through Aziraphale. Is Crowley having doubts about them already? Aziraphale lets out a breath to calm himself. It’s okay, he tells himself. I’m sure Crowley’s not having doubts about the relationship. ‘Crowley loves you’ Aziraphale tells himself firmly.

Aziraphale gives his best calm voice, “what’s there to doubt dear?” He asks gently, despite his still increasing worries that Crowley is having doubts about their relationship already, but his more rational brain tells him that Crowley would never doubt them being together.   
“If I deserve you” Crowley reveals.  
Aziraphale smiles in relief. He knew Crowley wouldn’t be having doubts about THEM.   
“Funny, I was wondering the same thing about you” Aziraphale coos at him.  
Crowley blushes, “shaddup” he flushes.

Crowley pops open his safe. He places the cassette inside. Aziraphale peeks around the draft Mona Lisa painting to have a sneaky look.  
Inside the safe is but two things. The new cassette, and the tartan thermos Aziraphale gave Crowley the holy water in.  
“You still have that?” Aziraphale says in amazement. “Is there anything left in it?”  
“Nah, I used every last drop to melt Lingur, I just keep it because you gave it to me now” Crowley shrugs, as he swings his safe shut, locking it behind its combination code as Aziraphale feels a fresh flutter of love.  
“Oh darling, you really are a big softie!” Aziraphale admires, coming up behind Crowley as the demon swings his Mona Lisa back onto the wall. Crowley startles as thick arms curl around his slender waist as Aziraphale’s soft head plunks onto Crowley’s back. “I love you darling” Aziraphale coos.   
Crowley smiles, calming as he nuzzles in backwards against his warm, cosy Angel. “I love you too Angel.”

**** 

Aziraphale is sat in a cosy tartan armchair in the corner of Crowley’s plant room, sipping a hot coco out of an Angel mug as Crowley waters his plants.  
Aziraphale was still covered in dust and looking less then presentable when they arrived at the flat, so Crowley - after their cuddle at the safe - suggested Aziraphale enjoy a long hot bath, to fully de-stress after his long three days of worry.  
Aziraphale had never taken a bath before. Or washed himself in any human way, come to think of it. He never had any need, he was always clean and fresh, his angelic skin never taking to dirt or stink the way a humans would. However, his clothes were a right state, and he was feeling a little uncomfortable after three days of pacing. So, he took the opportunity!   
Crowley has a fabulous jacuzzi bathtub, functioning both as jacuzzi and bathtub. Aziraphale spoils himself, using the jacuzzi setting and spending a lovely long time relaxing in the tub. 

When he gets out with freshly washed hair and a body that smells of strawberry bath soap, he finds a fresh set of his favourite outfit waiting for him. He dries and dresses, before heading into the plant room, where he finds a tartan armchair in the corner where their wasn’t one before, alongside a small round table that holds his coco filled Angel cup.  
So now here he sits, sipping and watching Crowley tend his plants.  
Everything finally seems right with the world.

“So, you had news for me?” Crowley asks excitedly as he circles the room, spraying each plant with his plant sprayer.   
“Ah yes” Aziraphale cosies into his optimum observation spot, and begins his tale. “Crowley, you won’t believe this. God talked to me! Personally!”

“You wOt?” Crowley is so stunned he stops mid plant spray to stare at Aziraphale.  
“She even took human form!”  
“That’s never happened before!” Crowley baffles. “That woman hasn’t directly spoken to anyone in six thousand years!”  
“I know!” Aziraphale expresses excitedly. “Better then that though, is what she SAID.”

Crowley’s eyebrows get higher and higher with each part of the story Aziraphale tells. His golden eyes spread more and more in shock. He hisses now and again in surprise as Aziraphale recites the whole story.  
It’s the most mind boggling thing Crowley has heard in, well, literally forever!

“So it seems you may have brought peace between our worlds” Aziraphale finishes. “and for that God is ever ever so grateful, so you won’t be punished for burning Gabriel. God seems to know perfectly well you were acting in self defence.”  
“Bloody Hell!” Crowley laughs, flopping back against the wall beside an especially tall plant. “I didn’t mean to solve all wars ya know! I just wanted to make sure you were being safe around Gabriel.”

Aziraphale is about to answer when he hears another voice, whispering within his mind, and he peers upwards in the direction of the clouds, through the window.  
Crowley already knows what this means. He stands up straight, a rare change from Crowley’s usually slouched position, having noticed Aziraphale hasn’t answered, “message from Heaven?” He guesses.  
“Yes. They say that it’s over with” Aziraphale confirms. “Michael, Uriel and Gabriel have all been sent to Hell, wing and miracle-less. They won’t even becoming demons the way you did, they’ll just be normal, mortal, tortured souls.”  
“Damn” Crowley whistles through his teeth. “Although that’s defiantly for the best. Can you imagine a demon Gabriel? We’d always be looking over our shoulders.”  
“Scarily true my darling” agrees Aziraphale. 

“So” Crowley’s golden eyes narrow, “who will be replacing the Archangels?”  
There’s a worry in that question, and Aziraphale picks it up. He smiles lovingly at his darling. “It won’t be me dear. I’m staying down here with you. God will be promoting some well deserving lower Angels to take their place.”  
“Ah, good” relief washes over Crowley. Aziraphale smiles lovingly at him.  
“And” the Angel goes on. “I was right. You’re being hailed as hero, and are completely exonerated from any charges for Gabriel’s burning. He’s fine, by the way, well, he was. Now he’s done in Hell I imagine he’s less then fine!” Laughs the Angel.  
Crowley gives a shaky laugh, “Satan below!”   
The two laugh together for a moment, then, as their laughter dies naturally away, anxiety clouds Crowley’s beautiful face.

“I never meant for any of this” he admits in a tiny voice.  
Aziraphale climbs out of his armchair, putting his coco down and crossing the small space between them, putting gentle hands on each of Crowley’s elbows. “I know this must be overwhelming for you dear, and I know you never meant to cause any of this, but you did it any way, Crowley” Aziraphale glows at him. “God and Satan are still talking, but it looks like you may have brought complete peace between our worlds. Accidentally or not, you’re a hero.”

Crowley huffs. “Well” he says, as he turns back to his plants. “Ain’t that something. The Original Tempter, the supposed ultimate evil, the hero of both worlds” Crowley shakes his head in shocked dismay as he turns back to tending to his poor plants, lonely and dry without being watered or talked to in three days. Thankfully, they all survived. The poor dears were probably too scared to die with the fear that Crowley might come back!   
“That’s a good thing dear” Aziraphale assures him. “And I’m very, very proud of you.”  
Crowley hides his face behind a large plant leaf, but Aziraphale can still just about see him smile!  
No matter what Crowley might say, Aziraphale knows that deep down, Crowley is proud of himself too! He survived a level of torture that most demons couldn’t handle, and his pain is going to be WORTH something, and that makes Aziraphale very, very proud.   
He still wishes he could have taken the bullet for Crowley. He wishes Crowley never had to suffer, but at least it will MEAN something.

Aziraphale smiles as he watches his beloved Crowley, never taking the credit. Never boastful. He may have accidentally saved their worlds - but that’s not what Crowley cares about.  
All he needs is in this room with him. Aziraphale.   
And maybe a plant or two, for yelling therapy.

****   
Once almost all of the plants are watered, Crowley turns to his Angel, “I’m gonna have one of my yelling sessions now, release some pent up rage, and I don’t wanna do it around you, so why don’t you go relax in the living room for a while?”  
So Aziraphale does, having tea and biscuits in Crowley’s sleek black lounge.  
Although what he hears, is the complete opposite of yelling!   
Instead, what he hears is the demon comforted his plants in gentle tones.  
“I’m sorry I’ve been away. It’s okay now, daddy’s home. Oh you poor thing! You’re all dried out! Here, you can have a spoonful of plant grow too. Don’t you worry, daddy’s not going away again” Crowley could be heard saying.  
Aziraphale resisted a giggle!   
And here he was believing all Crowley did was scream at his plants! Seems he was actually quite kind to them when necessary.  
Another reason to love him.

Then, a Queen record begins to play as Crowley hops into the shower - which is totally separate from the bathtub, and scrubs the horrible touch of Gabriel, Uriel and Michael off his skin.   
He hasn’t slept in three days and four nights, which, for Crowley at least, is a very long time. As a demon, he technically doesn’t need to sleep at all. He could go for eternity without so much as a little nap and be perfectly fine, technically.  
But Crowley’s human body has rather gotten rather used to sleeping at least once every other night, if not every night, and his body is growing tired. The days spent on that morgue table are catching up to him. He feels tired and sore from the stress finally leaking out his body.  
The shower helps with all the above issues, and he leaves it feeling much better physically, but the heat of the shower has only pulled him further towards exhaustion.

Aziraphale has been in the living room this whole time He tried the TV, but didn’t take to that very well, so he went hunting for books, and discovered Crowley has a small bookshelf! Located in his office room.  
So much for Mr ‘I don’t read books’.   
There isn’t a LOT of books, granted. It’s mostly gardening magazines or planetary magazines. Aziraphale finds the magazine all about Alpha Centauri and chuckles fondly before carefully sliding it back.   
That’s when his brain makes the connection. The few books that are here - are ones Aziraphale gave Crowley! Books he manages to force upon the demon with words like, ‘now this is one of my absolute favourites! You simply must try it dear boy! At least take it home and think about it.’   
Here, are all those books. Even though some of them were given to the demon centuries ago, and are so old their barely holding together.  
Aziraphale’s heart flutters joyous. He hasn’t a clue if Crowley has ever actually read these books, but he’s kept them, and that’s what counts.

So Aziraphale borrows one, returning to the living room to sip his coco and read.  
Finally, its as if the apartment come back to life.   
The air feels happier once all the plants have been watered and talked to. Then the Queen starts up, along with the blast of the shower, and suddenly all seems to be just the way it should be.  
The Bentley is parked outside. The plants are on edge but well cared for as usual. Queen is playing, the apartment is spotless, and there’s the sound of Crowley humming along to the Queen song in his shower.  
Crowley is home and whole and safe. The world is perfect again.

Then there’s the pad of soft feet and Crowley enters the living room wearing nothing but a fluffy black towering dressing gown. His flame red hair is flat against his scalp from being soaked and he suddenly looks very, very worn out.  
“I’m gonna head to bed Angel” Crowley says, giving a yawn.  
The fact that it’s not even lunch time yet alarms Aziraphale, he quickly puts his drink and coco aside, rushing to Crowley’s aid. “Are you alright dear?” he asks worriedly. “You don’t feel ill or anything, do you?”  
Crowley looks a little ill, to be honest. He’s gone pale, and that worries the angel further.   
“I’m fine Angel” Crowley assures softly. “Just sleepy. For me, three days without a nap is a long ass time.”  
Aziraphale feels a stab of guilt, “Oh my dear, I’m so sorry. I should have taken better care of you when you got home, instead I just made a giant silly fuss about how upset I’D been. I didn’t even stop to consider what a toll your kidnapping must have taken on you.”  
“Don’t be silly Aziraphale, I’m not your responsibility, m’kay?” he bends down and kisses his Angel’s cheek. “I’m going to bed then. See ya gorgeous” he turns to go, but gets swooped up from behind, Aziraphale lifting the skinny demon into his arms and laying him there, carrying him bridal style towards the bedroom. “Oi!”

Aziraphale giggles, “I’m going to be the one taking care of you for a change now Crowley” he announces. “As you have always taken care of me.”  
“Okay, but why am I currently being princess carried?” crouches the demon, grouchy over being treated like a damsel in distress. Who does he look like, Princess Peach?!  
“Because I decided you would be” Aziraphale says cheerfully. He looks happily down at his lovely demon. “You’re ever so light.”  
“I’m not light, you’re just strong” Crowley grumbles moodily.

Be Crowley light or Aziraphale just strong, Aziraphale gently places Crowley down on his bed all the same. Crowley’s bedroom is as sleek and black as the rest of the house, with two large green plants flanking the door. The Angel lays his love down upon his black bed, before waving a hand to draw the curtains shut tight.  
Crowley snaps his fingers and he’s suddenly in thick, cosy, long sleeved pyjamas.   
“You look very cosy darling” Aziraphale smiles, peeling back the duvet. Crowley slithers under it. Literally slithers.   
How Crowley manages to move like a snake in human form will always baffle Aziraphale.

Regardless, the Angel tucks Crowley warmly up and plants a warm kiss upon his forehead. “Now you sleep as long as you need to gorgeous” Aziraphale coos at him. “You’ve earned it.”  
“You staying?” Crowley asks uncertainly.  
“I’m not going anywhere” Aziraphale smiles softly at him, stroking his fingers through Crowley’s fire red hair. “I’ll be here when you wake up to make you tea and bring you the newspaper.”  
Crowley grins, “even if I sleep for 60 years again?” he teases.  
“Even then, I’ll water the plants” Aziraphale teases back, before giving Crowley’s forehead a serious stroke, “I’m here for as long as it takes for you to feel better.”

Crowley smiles up at him, “sing to me?” He asks.  
“Sing?” Aziraphale baffles, like he’s never heard the word.  
“Yeah, don’t all you Angels have perfect singing voices, isn’t that, like, the idea?” Grins Crowley.  
“Well, part of it anyway” Aziraphale smiles. “Alright, I’ll sing for you.” Aziraphale sits down on the edge of the bed. Crowley takes his hand and gazes up at him dozily, as Aziraphale begins a soft song.  
“L is for the way you look at me, O is for the only one I see, V is very, very extraordinary, E is even more than anyone that you adore. And love is all that I can give to you. Love is more than just a game for two, two in love can make it, take my heart but please don't break it, love was made for me and you.”   
Crowley is fast asleep.   
Aziraphale kisses him softly on the forehead and whispers, “goodnight my darling, I love you.”


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:  
Aziraphale worries for his precious demon. He worries Crowley has been somehow damaged from his time in captivity. His logical brain knows God healed Crowley and this means demon should be fine, but still. Just because Crowley was physically healed, that doesn’t he wasn’t somehow internally or mentally damaged.  
Or, so Aziraphale worries. It’s what Angels are built to do anyway. Their natural born worries.

Aziraphale keeps to his word. While Crowley slumbers, the Angel doesn’t go home to his bookshop. He stays at Crowley’s. He reads every book on Crowley’s small bookshelf and, waters and talks to the plants for him. He tried to watch a little TV again but finds it’s still not really for him, so he miracles up a crossword book and does that, instead.  
Crowley sleeps all day and all night. Aziraphale helps himself to warm drinks from Crowley’s fully stocked sleek kitchen, and switches to doing picture find-it puzzles.

The next morning rolls around. Aziraphale helps himself to cereal and cleans the already spotless kitchen, just for something to do. He also miracles up today’s newspaper and boils the kettle, prepared and hopeful that Crowley will get up and be himself again soon.   
He’s worried, but at least Aziraphale knows Crowley is physically safe this time! Every hour or so, Aziraphale peeks around the door to Crowley’s bedroom to check up on him, and finds his lovely demon is still tossing and turning, peacefully asleep. Safe, secure, alive.   
Secured in the knowledge his Crowley is safe, Aziraphale is okay again - for an hour, then he has to check again.

Finally, at 11:13am, Crowley struts into the living room in that fantastic model walk of his. “Morning Angel!” He swaggers, his snake eyes bright and his face flush with colour. He’s dressed too, sunglasses and all. “How’s my darling?”  
“Crowley!” Aziraphale drops his find-it puzzle book and jumps out of the arm chair, throwing his arms around his demon. “I’m so glad you’re alright! You look much better darling.”  
“Feeling better darling” Crowley’s posture and body are strong again, his face bright with health. “And I’m sorry Angel, were you worried again?” He asks as he traces his fingertips up and down Aziraphale’s spine. It feels lovely.   
Aziraphale’s eyes shine as he giggles, “only my usual amount of worry this time.”  
“Well that’s not to bad then” chuckles Crowley.

“How long have I been asleep?” he cocks his head at his lovely Angel, “it’s impossible to tell how much time has passed on you.”  
“Yes I suppose it is!” Aziraphale giggles. “But you’ve only been asleep twenty four hours this time darling.”   
“Damn, not even close to breaking my sixty year record then” grins Crowley. He gazes towards the window, “I see its typical England out there” he says, noting the rain.  
Aziraphale pecks Crowley’s snake tattoo with a kiss and leaves his arms, picking up the newspaper. “Typical indeed” Aziraphale agrees, handing Crowley the paper. “My promised newspaper.”  
“Ha, thanks” grins Crowley, peering down at the newspaper. He flips through a few pages as Aziraphale coos at him.  
“Would you like that cuppa too?” Aziraphale almost teases.  
“Go on then” Crowley chuckles. “After that, how about we go on that picnic you promised me in the 60s?”

“Well I’d love to darling, but bit of a miserable day for it.”  
Crowley’s fantastic snake eyes peak over the top of his shades, “is it?”  
Aziraphale looks to the window, and finds the pouring rain has been replaced by blazing sunshine.  
“Little demonic miracle of my own” Crowley announces proudly.   
Aziraphale glows proudly at his beloved Crowley, and wonders how he got so lucky as to have found the kindest demon in Hell. 

**** 

The whether is truly spectacular.   
They sit together in a secluded garden, underneath a big apple tree that they both had a chuckle at. The garden is also magnificent, with endless rolling green pastures, babbling brooks and beautiful plant life for miles around, its like being in Eden all over again.  
Which Aziraphale knows to be Crowley’s exact reason for selecting this spot.  
They sit alone beneath the warm sun and just in front of the cooling shade, so the temperature is just right. Beneath them is laid out a pink and white checked picnic blanket, along with classic brown picnic basket. Laid out before them is a story book worthy lunch. A beautiful pie in the shape of a heart with matching heart shaped cookies and two croissants lay on a plate to make out a heart shape. Even the sandwiches have been cut into little heart shapes! There’s a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket at Crowley’s feet, chilling nicely beside the awaiting champagne glasses.  
Their lunch is all laid out, but for now, the two just sit back like their star gazing; legs our straight, backs up at an angle, arms supporting their weight behind them as they gaze at the beauty of the world.

“We finally got our picnic” Crowley smiles, looking over at his Angel with his usual loving gaze.  
“Well, I did promise” coos Aziraphale, taking one of his hands and laying it atop Crowley’s. The demon smiles lovingly at him.  
The two admire each other, and the beautiful world around them for a few long moments. It’s so lovely to just sit and relax, to hear the buzz of bees, to feel the sway of the wind, to see the gurgle of the streams. It’s paradise here.

Crowley sits up properly and begins to cut into the apple pie with the knife and fork. “Tempt you to some forbidden apple?” Grins the serpent.  
“Temptation accomplished!” Giggles Aziraphale as he sit sits up to join him.  
Crowley serves Aziraphale a slice of their heart shaped pie on a little party paper plate, a pack of which they brought with them. “Won’t you join me in a piece?” Aziraphale asks, as he happily takes a bite. Hmmm. Delicious!  
“I can’t taste it Angel, you know that” Crowley shrugs from behind his sunglasses. “It would be a waste of perfectly delicious food, giving it to me. Plus” he smiles, head over heels at his Angel, “watching you happy makes me happy.”  
Aziraphale smiles in a little Heavenly glow at him, tucking in contently as the breeze softly tickles the grass all around them.  
Aziraphale didn’t know it possible to be this happy.

Aziraphale pops open the champagne and pours them glasses, passing them one each. “To my demon” Aziraphale coos at him, “Who may have accidentally saved both our worlds!”  
“Oh ya know” chuckles Crowley. “It was nothing” although he looks proud. “So did God say any other interesting thing during Her visit?”  
Aziraphale pauses. At the time he had been pretty upset, but he knew there was something else of importance....  
“Oh!” Aziraphale remembers, feeling as if a gong has gone off in his mind. “We were made for each other.”  
“Daww, that’s sweet Angel, I feel the same” Crowley coos, melted by the romance of the statement.  
“Well yes me too dear, but I meant literally, God made us for each other, were literal soul mates” Aziraphale tells. “We’re a little experiment. God and Satan have been hoping we’d get together and prove two opposites can do it. They’ve been WAITING for it.”  
Aziraphale has never seen Crowley look so... mixed. Shocked, confused, baffled, lost, his slit snake eyes darting all about as his mind races. “Ngk” mumbles the demon, before “I..I don’t undersssstand.”  
Crowley is hissing his ‘s’s and his gold eyes are taking up most of the whites of his eyes. When Crowley is stressed, the gold of his eyes widens so there’s almost no human whiteness left. The more stressed Crowley is, the more the gold spreads, its an amazing thing to behold, and when he forgets himself or gets emotional he hisses. Almost like strong emotions cause him to lose focus on staying in human form and causes him to start slipping back into his true snake form.  
Aziraphale has heard Satan does a similar thing when HE’S upset.  
Frankly, the Angel just finds it cute!

“Hell would have never killed you. Heaven would have never fired me. All these years, us being together is what they’ve WANTED” Aziraphale explains.  
Crowley’s eyes have gone full gold, his slit pupils shrunk in whilst the gold has spread completely in stress, “y-you’re serious?”   
“I was shocked too” Aziraphale assures him. “But it’s all very true, God told me so Herself.”  
Crowley bursts into sudden laughter, so hard he falls over, rolling about on the picnic blanket, rolling with the laughter. “Oh that’s brilliant! And awful! And brilliantly awful.” He’s laughing so hard he starts to cough. “All those years!” He laughs, and Aziraphale is laughing with him, “I’ve been flirting with you, and you’ve been rejecting me for no reason, for six thousand years!” He’s laughing.

And then Crowley’s laugh abruptly stops, so sudden it’s startling.   
As if he’s suddenly realised the weight of this realisation. 

“All those years” he says in a tiny whisper, suddenly sad, his eyes narrowed away as he shuffles slightly away from Aziraphale, letting go of his hand. “The bandstand. The duck pond, the Bentley. Every time you said you couldn’t even be my FRIEND, simply because I am what I am.”  
Aziraphale feels his heart absolutely shatter. 

As wonderful and as forgiving as Crowley is, as kind and as lovely, Crowley has clearly been deeply injured by Aziraphale’s words over the years.  
‘You go to fast for me Crowley.’  
‘We’re hereditary enemies!’  
‘I don’t even like you.’  
‘There is no our side Crowley! Not anymore. It’s over.’  
He’s hurt his demon deeply, and knowing that completely breaks Aziraphale’s heart.  
Crowley has always been more passionate about his wounded love for Aziraphale then the Angel was willing to be. Crowley is a very expressive person in general, so his love was impossible to miss; from the countless times Crowley has rescued his Angel down to the fact that Crowley has made no less then six million offers for them to more then friends.  
He’s never said those words explicitly, he knew - or feared at the time but knows differently now - that would be risking his Angel’s position in Heaven and he didn’t want that. But he said it in other ways.  
‘Anywhere you want to go.’  
‘We can go off together’  
‘Fraternising?!?!’  
Thinking of that last one made Aziraphale’s heart sting even more. 

Yes, Crowley has always been chasing his Angel, and oh, how Aziraphale longed to just go weak at the knees and accept the offer. Ever since the Beginning that was true. But he couldn’t. Or, he thought he couldn’t at the time.   
Not so much for himself. Okay, so he’d be a liar if he said he wasn’t worried about losing his job at the time. He loved being an Angel, of course he did. However, what he had been MORE worried about was Crowley.  
That Hell would destroy him for having a relationship with an Angel.

But now...they never have to worry about any of that ever, EVER gain.  
But that doesn’t mean the wounds caused by all those years of rejection and wounded pining have just vanished.

“I’m so sorry I hurt you Crowley” Aziraphale tells gently. “I want you to know, I never rejected you because I didn’t want you. I’ve always wanted you. At the time, I just believed it to be dangerous, and I didn’t want to risk your safety because of my feelings. I know that all seems silly now, but that’s where my mind was at the time.”   
Crowley sighs. “Why didn’t our sides TELL us it was okay to be together? They obviously knew we were pining after each other.”  
“I guess for the same reason God Herself doesn’t answer the humans” shrugs Aziraphale. “We needed to do it for ourselves. We needed to find the courage to face what we believed would be judgement. If they told us being together was fine, then we wouldn’t be two enemies who came together despite what others may think, which is what Satan and God were aiming to do.”

Crowley huffs, blowing out pursed lips in frustration, “Satan below, that’s something, eh?”  
“It is” agreed Aziraphale. He gives his love a gentle look, “I’m still sorry for hurting you Crowley.”  
Crowley manages a small smile, as he picks up his shades and pops them back on. “That’s a’right.”

No ‘Angel’ at the end of his sentence, and he doesn’t scoot back closer to Aziraphale. Plus he’s still staring away from Aziraphale.  
“No, it’s not” Aziraphale announces. “And I know words aren’t enough. Crowley, if it takes me another six thousand years, I’m going to make this up to you. I won’t give up until you forgive me.”  
Crowley finally looks at him.  
“It didn’t matter how many times I rejected you, you still stuck by me, still saved my butt every time I got myself in a pickle, and still remained kind, caring, loving, and, your favourite word, nice” Aziraphale smiles at him. “Trust me, it didn’t go unnoticed.”  
Crowley gives the tiniest smile, “yeah?”  
Aziraphale had won a smile! Wonderful. ”I was always so grateful. You’ve always made me feel so safe, so loved. No matter how much the world changed around us, you stayed my one consistent. I owe you my life on at least twenty occasions, and I promise, I will take back every word of rejection I ever said to you, even if it takes me forever.”

Crowley still keeps his shades on. He sighs. “You really hurt me, over and over and over again” he says, peering away once more.  
“I know, and I won’t tell you I’m sorry, I’ll just show you how sorry I am” Aziraphale vows. “That is, if I’m welcome?”

This is it. This is Crowley’s chance to turn Aziraphale down, allow his Angel to feel the same pain he’s been in all these years.

But Aziraphale has already been in pain. Crowley knows now that it hurt Aziraphale just as much to do the rejecting as it do for Crowley to be rejected.  
Besides, Crowley has seen Aziraphale upset before. They’ve witnessed all of Earths greatest tragedies today. Both world wars, the Holocaust, slavery, injustice, pain and sorrow. They’ve watched as humans have behaved worse then demons ever could. Aziraphale would remain mostly strong during these times, keeping his mind focused on what he could do to help rather then what was going wrong. It was one of his most admirable traits in Crowley’s eyes.   
Yes, Aziraphale has always been kinder then Heaven itself could ever be.  
However, even an Angel has his breaking points. Crowley has seen Aziraphale cry over the savagery of humans, and Crowley has sat with him through those times, offering tea and warm drinks until his Angel felt better. 

But never, ever has Crowley seen Aziraphale in as much of a state as he was in the other day. When Aziraphale got upset about humans, he’d have a little weep for five minutes or so, then pull himself swiftly together and refocus his mind on all the good things humanity has done instead.  
But all it took was Crowley being missing for three days to utterly destroy his Angel. Never had Crowley seen Aziraphale cry so hard. Apparently, so Aziraphale tells him, the Angel has barely sat down for the whole three days, spending the whole time pacing or worrying or searching.  
He was as deeply in love with Crowley as Crowley was in love with him.  
And frankly, six thousand years is long enough to wait.

Crowley takes off his shades, and his fantastic golden snake eyes meet Aziraphale’s grey. “I forgive you, Angel. What’s important is that we’re here now, and that we get to be together, forever.”  
Aziraphale pounces on his demon, wrapping him in a hug and showering him with kisses. Crowley laughs and responds with squeezing hugs and raining kisses of his own.  
They giggle and they kiss. Hands get smoothed through hair before travelling softly all over clothes. At first, Aziraphale is the one on top, but Crowley soon changes this by flipping them over, taking command.  
“No no no!” Aziraphale giggles teasingly, rolling them back over.  
“Oi” Crowley grins, flipping them again.

They play this silly game of rolling each other over and over, until they roll themselves right off the hill they were picnicking on! They end up rolling down the hill, still tangled in each other’s arms, making sounds of surprise before they land in a heap at the bottom, laughing side by side.  
“I guess we’ll just be one of those take-turns-on-top couples, eh?” Crowley winks as he helps his Angel sit up.  
“Seems that would be best!” Aziraphale laughs back, before grinning, “you’ve got leaves in your hair dear!” He says, pulling green leaves from Crowley’s flame hair.  
“You’ve got a whole ass twig in yours!” Crowley laughs, pulling a small twig out of Aziraphale’s curls.  
The two laugh together, warm and safe, happy and together at last.

Aziraphale gets up and pulls Crowley up after him, “shall we get back to our picnic then dear?”  
“Certainly” Crowley takes his Angels hand and together they begin climbing the hill back up t their romantic, awaiting picnic.

Halfway up the hill, Aziraphale freezes in realisation.  
“What?” frowns Crowley.  
“When I asked you out the other day, you said yes” Aziraphale remembers.  
“M’yh, obviously” nods Crowley, looking puzzled to see where this was going.  
“But I only told you just NOW that our sides said it was okay for us to be together” Aziraphale realises. “So, you said yes BEFORE you knew it was safe.”  
Crowley smiles softly, “I already knew it was safe for you, Angel. I had just burnt Gabriel to near a crisp, and I knew he was the only Angel in Heaven who would ever try to fire you for being with me. With him gone, I knew before you told me that God would never take your wings, much less HARM you, with Gabriel gone. You forget, I was an Angel too. I knew God. She would never have taken your wings, I’ve known that since the Beginning. I was only worried about Gabriel.” 

Aziraphale stands there, baffled. “But - but why didn’t you say something then?!”  
“I DID!” Crowley insists. “How many times did I tell you that Gabriel was bad news, or suggest that maybe he wasn’t relaying God’s messages correctly? You never believed me, and when I asked if I would ever lie to you, you would tell me ‘you’re a demon, that’s what you do.’ Remember? Or you wouldn’t even let me FINISH my sentence! Remember? The Black Knight? Before I could even get to the damn point, you huffed off saying we simply weren’t having this conversation.”  
Aziraphale blinks.  
The answers have been right there in front of him, all these years, but he was too drown in fear of Gabriel to see them.  
God MADE Crowley for Aziraphale. Crowley had seen Heaven. He had seen the truth long before this whole Antichrist business. It was just the Antichrist and being kidnapped was his first forms of actual evidence.  
It almost took Crowley’s death for anybody to listen to him about Gabriel.

“How can you even be in love with someone as blind as me?” Aziraphale asks softly.  
“Easy” Crowley smiles. “You gave away your flaming sword. You did the wrong thing by God, to do the right thing by people. I knew from that second that you were a far better Angel then any of the others could ever hope to be.”  
Aziraphale smiles beautifully at him, and the two continue up the hill and perch themselves on the blanket. Aziraphale begins nibbling one half of the heart shaped croissant. “Although” he says thoughtfully as he nibbles. “Just because you knew I would safe, doesn’t mean you would have been. As far as you know up until just now, Hell could have melted you for being me.”  
“Angel, you still don’t get it, do ya?” Crowley grins, as he pours himself a fresh glass of champagne. “I’d have happily die tomorrow, if it meant I got to spend today with you. I would have taken the death penalty, if it meant being with you for even five minutes. Even that would have been well, WELL worth it.”   
Aziraphale feels such a swell of love it’s near overwhelming. 

With no shades to hide behind, Crowley’s eyes are the most expressive thing about him, and even a blind can could see the love pouring out of Crowley’s eyes as he gazes at his beloved.  
And Aziraphale gazes right back at him.  
Just like that, it’s like time has reset, and their back at the Ritz, gazing and eating, smiling and admiring. Only it feels like a whole new world with a fresh start.  
And the two of them are finally free.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:   
The beautiful Bentley rolls to a gentle stop. The street outside of Aziraphale’s bookshop are actually painted with double yellow no-parking lines, but they politely roll back into the gutter with a twitch of Crowley’s eyebrow every time he wants to park there. Which is actually quite often.

“There you go Angel” Crowley smiles as the Bentley stops. “Home sweet home.”  
“Oh thank you dear” Aziraphale says cheerfully, looking to his beloved. “You coming in?”  
“Nah, I gotta get home myself” Crowley says.   
“Oh” Aziraphale says.  
He can’t help it, he’s suddenly rattled. His good mood has washed away in a sudden tsunami of realisation.  
Crowley has to go home at some point.   
Usually, Aziraphale doesn’t mind. He accepts that of COURSE Crowley has his own life and of course they can’t see each other every day.   
It’s just...thinking of Crowley leaving again strikes fear within Aziraphale. He’s terrified he won’t come back. He came so terrifyingly close to losing his beloved, that he fears letting Crowley out of his sight now will surely make him vanish.

Aziraphale is staring at the carpet of the Bentley, twisting his hands together when a soft hand lands atop his, and Crowley is looking at his lovely Angel behind gentle shades, “you want me to stay with you a while longer?”  
Aziraphale lights up like a firecracker, “yes please!”  
Crowley chuckles fondly, “anything for my Angel!”

So they join hands and head inside, closing the doors of the Bentley behind them. Into the warm and cosy - yet dusty and disorganised - shop they head. The bell above the door tingles merrily at their arrival, as if the shop itself is welcoming them back.  
“Drink?” Crowley offers.   
Aziraphale doesn’t need to be tempted into that one!   
The bottle of wine opens with a ‘pop’ and the two end up lounging in the back room, pouring each other shades and slugging them down as a record of Queen spins on Aziraphale’s record player, filling the bookshop with happy, energetic music.

The two sit closer together then they’ve ever sat before, squished up on the sofa, pressing shoulder to shoulder as they sing along to the music and wave their glasses about in drunk swoops. The fire place - fake but producing real heat - roars at their feet, a soft rain begins pelting the windows outside, and the only sounds are crackling fire and content breaths.  
It’s wonderful. It’s the most wonderful thing Aziraphale has ever experienced. seems he’s thought that a lot recently, but honestly it’s true. Every moment spent with Crowley is like a dream. It’s warm and it’s loving. It’s homely and it’s safe, and suddenly that aching, empty place inside both of them is gone.

Aziraphale can’t remember a time when he didn’t ache for Crowley. He’s spent six thousand years WANTING him. Longing for him. Wishing he could touch him, hold him.   
Aziraphale had felt sure that day would never come. That he’d spend eternity wanting, but never having.  
He knows without having to ask that Crowley felt the same, if not more so. 

They sit and chat as the bottle slowly empties, chatting and laughing together, making up for lost time. Crowley realises they’ve drained the bottle by giving it a disappointed rattle. “Tempt you to another?” He grins at his Angel.  
“Temptation accomplished” Aziraphale giggles contently.  
Crowley gives a snap of his fingers and the bottle of wine magically refills. It’s so wonderful to see Crowley in full working order, that he’s alive and well, his magic functioning and his face bright with health. As he starts pouring out two fresh glasses while Aziraphale’s mind has begun to tick.  
Aziraphale almost lost the love of his life. The love he’s been waiting to have for six thousand years.   
He never, ever wants to waste a single minute again. Every second he gets with Crowley feels like the best moment ever. Aziraphale has never known anything like it. 

“I hope you don’t think me possessive dear boy” Aziraphale gives a hiccup, drunk but content. “I do still want us to lead lives outside of one another, of course.”  
“I know that Angel” Crowley slurs. “You’re - you’re still a bit ssshaken up, is all. I get dat. I would -“ he burps. “I would be too.”  
Aziraphale smiles lovingly at him, “you always understand.”  
“M’yh’course” Crowley hiccups. “I’m - I'm ere’ for as long as ya need me.”  
Aziraphale giggles. He loves it when Crowley sounds even more Scottish then usual! He couldn’t be more glad his demon has spent so much time up North. 

So the two spend most of the afternoon and into the evening drinking heavily. Crowley brings up his favourite subject, ducks.  
“I ssstill wonder if ducks have ears” he says, five bottles of wine downed.  
“I suppose they must do” Aziraphale answers. “So they can hear other ducks” he quotes his beloved with a laugh.  
“Itssss good logic!” Crowley slurs.

The two go on like that for most of the night, laughing and having ridiculous drunk conversations until they both end up passing out side by side on the sofa.  
Their only awaken when the morning sunshine streams in through the window and hits their eyes. Aziraphale groans and Crowley hisses like a vampire, quickly grabbing his shades from the side table and plonking them on.  
“This is why sunglasses are such a good idea” he says, as he pulls himself painfully up off the sofa.  
“I feel I could use a pair this minute” Aziraphale grumbles in agreement as he waves a hand. The blinds across the room shut themselves.  
“Ah, much better” Crowley nods, stretching his long body this way and that. “Coffee Angel? My treat.”  
“Go on then” Aziraphale smiles, as Crowley wonders towards the back rooms hot drinks facility. Calling it a ‘kitchen’ when there’s only two counters - one for cups and the other for tea nags, coffee, coco and hot chocolate. There was a small fridge simply for nothing but milk, and a kettle m. Yes, calling this a kitchen would indeed be a stretch.  
Crowley opens the cup cupboard to discover Aziraphale’s small hoard of Angel mugs. Perfectly white with a cute little pair of Angel wings as their handle, Aziraphale had no less than five of them.  
Chuckling fondly, Crowley makes the coffee and brings it back to his love, who’s waiting in his arm chair. Crowley passes Aziraphale his coffee and earns a “thank you dear boy.” Crowley smiles and then notices the multiple empty wine glasses and bottles littering the tables all around them. He snaps his fingers to banish them back to the glasses cupboard for the glasses, and the recycling got the bottles.  
Funny thing for a demon to be eco conscious enough to recycle, but then again, Crowley was a very odd demon. 

“Thank you for staying with me last night my boy” Aziraphale bids as Crowley flops back onto the sofa.  
“Ehh, no problem” Crowley says, before rubbing at his forehead, “I tell you what, I have got a BANGING headache.”  
“My ears are buzzing” Aziraphale complains along.   
“Worth it though” Crowley grins.  
“Absolutely” Aziraphale agrees without hesitation.

***

Crowley stays with Aziraphale for another two day’s, only popping home to water his plants, taking Aziraphale with him every time. Otherwise, the demon hangs around the bookshop as Aziraphale returns to his business - the business of stopping people actually buying his books, mind you!   
Crowley sits in the back room. He miracles up a TV and watches that, or he wonders around the shop and helps Aziraphale ward off book buyers. At night, Crowley transforms the sofa into a bed and sleeps there while Aziraphale sits in the arm chair and reads.

This ever presence of Crowley soothes Aziraphale. Knowing Crowley is only a few feet away calms him, and he’s able to work merrily in his bookshop, not actually, physically seeing Crowley for hours at a time, but always he’s just around the next corner. Safe, alive and well.  
Aziraphale feels the worry and the tension slowly ooze out of him. Every hour that ticks by is another hour when Crowley is safe, which means Aziraphale no longer has to worry about that particular hour, and by day two, he realises he’s been sorting books happily for two hours without so much as a thought as to Crowley’s whereabouts.  
Seems, his nerves have finally unwound.  
It feels wonderful!

Crowley is watching his favourite program, the Golden Girls in box set DVDs, when Aziraphale flutters into the back room the way only a being with actual working wings can flutter.   
“Crowley dear, I feel safer now” he announces proudly.  
“That’s fabulous Angel!” Crowley beams.  
“So, I feel okay for you to go home, if you want to” Aziraphale proclaims.  
“Wonderful! Not the home bit, but the fact that you okay now bit” Crowley beams, climbing out of the sofa and hugging his Angel right. “I’m so proud of you Angel.”   
“Thank you dear” Aziraphale coos, cuddling his miracle of a man back. “And thank you for being here for me. I know you must miss you’re own apartment dreadfully by now.”  
“Well ya know me, don’t have much taste in being surrounded by books the way you do” Grins the demon. “But it’s been great, staying here with you. It’s like we kinda had a practice run of living together.”  
“That’s very true!” Aziraphale sparkles, before smiling at his demon, “I can’t wait for that stage in our relationship.”  
“Me neither, but hey, no rush, we’re immortal after all, so we’ve got literally forever” beams Crowley.  
Aziraphale laughs with him.

Crowley, having missed just being alone with his thoughts as well as his plants, decides to head home after one last shared coffee with Aziraphale. At the door, the two share a kiss.  
“Mind how you go dear” Aziraphale smiles, feeling like he’s sending his husband off to work for the day like a 50’s wife, or something.  
“You too Angel” Crowley smiles loving. “But first, I miracled up a little present for you.” Crowley says. Aziraphale watches with intrigue as Crowley pulls the object into existence from nothingness. “So you can call me outside of the bookshop, if you wanted to.” He says, handing the object to Aziraphale.

It’s a mobile phone. Well, sort of. It’s more like the toy phone humans give to their toddlers to play pretend with. It has a large screen for easy reading, and large, brightly coloured buttons, all with labels. One marked ‘on/off’, another marked ‘call Crowley’, another marked ‘other calls’ and a final one marked ‘written message (text message)’. The buttons are large and bulky, just like a toys.  
Aziraphale finds himself laughing, “is it real?”   
“Oh yeah, it really works, too” Grins Crowley. “Got you on a miraculously renewing plan and battery life too, so you never have to worry about that.”  
Experimenting, Aziraphale presses the ‘written message’ button. The screen comes to life, and from the side the phone a little draw pops open, which is covered in a type-writer style keyboard, expect the keys are mostly flat rather then stood up. The top of the keyboard is labelled “tiny type writer :)” and on the screen is what looks to be a blank letter. It has a bar for “addressed to” and a blank box labelled “message here”.  
Aziraphale laughs again, “oh my boy, it’s lovely!” The happy Angel admires.  
“For the Angel who's still using a dial-up phone in 2020” beams his demon if counterpart. 

“Show me how to use it then” Aziraphale says excitedly.  
He’s never had a mobile before. Especially not one especially designed to fit around his, shall we say, out of date understanding of technology. Thankfully, Aziraphale is, after all, an Angel, and the Angelic mind is able to learn and understand new things at a much more rapid speed then humans. Aziraphale will always pride himself on how he figured out the Antichrist’s location within a few hours of having Agnes Nutter’s book of prophecies, something no one else had managed to do. He’s really rather quite proud of that achievement.  
So, even though he’s definitely a few centuries behind when it comes to technology, Crowley’s easy-to-use phone is understood reasonably quickly. 

“Can I do a test run?” Aziraphale grins excitedly, the two of them still stood in the shop doorway twenty minutes later.   
Crowley cackles, “go for it Angel!”  
Aziraphale looks excitedly down at his new device. He shall always prefer face to face communication or letters, but this is a good idea of Crowley’s. Now, Aziraphale can get in touch with Crowley wherever he goes. Always an advantage - even if, most of the time, if Aziraphale was venturing outside his bookshop, it was WITH Crowley - but one never can tell!  
So, Aziraphale presses the ‘written message’ button again like Crowley taught him. Using the keyboard (a little awkward as it’s much smaller then a real typewriter), he puts in Crowley’s name in the ‘addresses to’ box, and the phone recognises it immediately, as Crowley has already saved his number into the device. Then, Aziraphale types in and presses ‘send’ (which is a button that lies with the spring-loaded pop out keyboard) on his first ever text message, as he’s learnt their called.

The sound of a Heavenly ‘ting’ goes off in Crowley’s jean pocket, and he slips out is sleek, modern, up-to-date smartphone, with its long screen, tony buttons and no physical keyboard in sight at all! Aziraphale is honestly baffled at how Crowley bloody uses that thing.  
Crowley checks the glowing grins and grins. He taps the phones screen with thumbs like lightening - Aziraphale will always wonder how the lad manages to digitally write so quickly - and then Aziraphale’s new phone alerts with a sound like a demonic chuckle.  
“Cute noises” Aziraphale admires.  
“I thought they were a nice touch” grins Crowley, as Aziraphale looks down at his new screen.  
There, is the Angels first ever text message exchange.

‘Hi Crowley :)’ (Aziraphale had gotten instruction on how to make the tiny faces. Or what ever they were called these days. Emojis or something?)

And then below his original message, the reply,  
‘Hello my Angel 😇❤’  
Aziraphale beams all over! 

****

Life really does return to normal after that! Only it’s so much better.   
Crowley spends his days making ‘mischief’ (eh mild annoyances) for humans, and Aziraphale buddies himself in his bookshop. They meet up in the evenings for a date. Sometimes they go out to eat, other times they go and see plays. Crowley even manages to drag Aziraphale to a movie! And although the loud sounds and massive screen unease’s the Angel at first, he soon finds himself captivated by the story unfolding in front of his eyes.  
“Movies are wonderful!” Aziraphale squees happily to Crowley on their way out.  
Crowley laughs at him, “wait till you see some of the greats! You’re gonna WEEP over Titanic. Not the real one, the movie one.”  
“They made that into a movie?” Aziraphale frowns curiously.  
Crowley beams fondly at his Angel.

Other nights, they go for a walk under the stars through the park. Aziraphale loves those walks. He thought the park was beautiful by day, but it’s fantastic at night!  
Everything is so brilliant, Aziraphale sort of, kind of, forgets something a TINY bit important.

He’s humming Queen songs - Crowley rubbing off on him there - and organising books when his holy summoning circle brings glowing and buzzing beneath his rug. He pulls it away.   
“Aziraphale” greets Mothers voice as Her light shines down.   
“Mother” the Angel bows loyally.  
”I’d like to invite you home to hear the results of those peace talks.”  
“Peace talks?” Aziraphale wonders out loud before he can stop himself.  
Which is a shame, because he remembers five seconds after he asked the question.  
How embarrassing!   
“Oh! Oh yes! You and Satan, possible peace between Heaven and Hell! Um...totally didn’t forget about such - such an important thing ...” babbles the Angel.  
If he didn’t know better, Aziraphale could of sworn he heard the Allmother sigh with a mix of fondness and exasperation.   
“Just come up when you’re ready” Mother invites, them Her presence is gone but the light remains. 

Still feeling a little embarrassed, Aziraphale decided to seize this opportunity! He can’t help it, he’s rather starting to enjoy this new form of communication. It’s so much faster then a phone call!  
He’s actually got reasonably quick at texting too! Not Crowley speeds, but much better. He sends a quick text now;  
‘Being called to Heaven to hear about those peace talks. Not sure how long I’ll be gone so don’t worry if it’s been a few hours. See you soon love.’ He sends.  
He waits but a few seconds for a reply. Crowley seems to jump to his phone whenever it’s a message from Aziraphale, because his replies are always lightening quick!  
‘Okay, mind how you go. Bring me updates! Love you ❤’   
Aziraphale beams at the text like a teenage girl. Now he understands why people are always smiling at their phones!  
‘Love you too dear. See you soon :) <3’ he sends back, before slotting his phone into his pocket, and setting into the circle.

He can’t wait to hear the results!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for over 700 hits! ^_^

Chapter 8:  
Up in Heaven, God awaits, wearing Her human form and She’s stood beside a man with tanned skin, black hair and a pitch black formal suit. He leans on a cane topped with a human skull. He has blood red eyes that glisten with the reflection of an ever present fire. He stands on a small patch of dried lava.  
“Aziraphale, meets the original Fallen Angel, Samuel” God introduces.  
“Although they call me Satan these days” says the man, calmly.  
Aziraphale blinks at him, “you look a tad different from the last time I saw you.”  
Satan gives a smirk, “I thought a more human look would be more manageable to be seen in.”  
“It is” Aziraphale agrees.

“Well, the two of us thought you’d like to hear the news” God smiles beautifully. “Samuel and I have come to a complete, and everlasting piece. Inspired mostly by Crowley’s discovery, and the relationship you share with him now, Aziraphale.”  
Aziraphale is blown away, “you’re kidding!” He beams.  
“Nope” grins Satan. “No more wars. No more sides.”  
Aziraphale is beaming ear to ear, “this is wonderful!”   
“It is, isn’t it?” God glows. “You see Aziraphale, I’ve been wrong, and I’m not ashamed to admit that. I was wrong to cast Samuel out to begin with, I see that now.”  
“Really?!” Aziraphale baffles.

All his life (and it’s been a very long one at that) it’s been drilled into him that Satan was the ultimate evil, banished from Heaven for creating all that was awful.  
But...standing beside Him now, seeing Him, Aziraphale can sense...something.  
“Yes, I didn’t mean to fall, I just asked questions” Satan recalls.  
Aziraphale’s ears prick.   
Crowley often says the exact same thing.  
“Reasonable ones too, but my ego was so fragile that any questioning, no matter how reasonable, seemed like an insult” God tells sadly. “I thought myself so much greater, so untouchable, so much, well, holier then thou, that I didn’t listen.”  
Another thing Crowley once accused Aziraphale of. Acting holier then thou, acting like he was above questions when really he was just anxious because he had unanswered questions of his own.   
“What is it you’ve always called it, Samuel?” God smiles.   
“I sauntered vaguely downwards” Samuel chuckles.  
Aziraphale freezes completely.

It seems, Aziraphale has been very, very wrong for a very, very long time. 

“We’ve always assumed Heaven to be purely good and Hell to be purely bad, I think…there’s a lot more humanity in us both” God tells.   
“We demons can be good, and Angels can be bad” Satan agrees. “God has made mistakes, because She is not in fact perfect. I have done good things because I am not evil.”  
“We’ve been far too black and white” God nods at him. She smirks, “often literally, eh?”  
Satan chuckles and rounds his shoulders. A pair of pitch black wings that match Crowley’s pop out of His back, and He flutters them gently.  
Aziraphale is mid crisis, to be honest.  
He gets it now.   
He gets what the feeling that coming off Satan is.  
It’s the same kindness and love Aziraphale can feel coming off Crowley. Oh don’t get him wrong, there’s still darkness and coldness bleeding off him, but there is that same tiny spark of kindness in him that’s in Crowley, like, deep down, he’s well, in Aziraphale’s own words -  
A good person.

“I accept the terrible things I’ve influenced, but I must stress that the worst things that have happened in the world were all humans own choices” shrugs Satan. “I invented free will. Or, more accurately, I sent the demon Crowley to invent free will with the forbidden apple. I introduced, through him, the idea of listening to ones self, rather then seeking approval of someone” He looks to God, “even if that someone is God. I just didn’t think people should live out their whole lives bowing and kneeling to whatever YOU wanted of them. People should be able to be themselves AND still be loved by you. I need you to explain to me why eating fruit off a tree YOU put there is wrong, other then the typical Mom answer of ‘because I said so.’”  
‘Big tree in the middle of a garden with a ‘don’t touch’ sign, bit obvious, isn’t it? Why not put it on top of a high mountain? Or on the moon?’  
Crowley. Satan. They’re both….  
Right.  
“It really doesn’t make sense” Aziraphale suddenly finds himself agreeing. “A good parent should surely explain WHY an action is good or bad, not just say ‘because it is’. How do you expect the humans to learn and to make the right choices if you’ve never explained anything to them?”  
Oh goodness! Did Aziraphale just…question?! Question GOD?!?!  
Crowley is REALLY having an effect on him!  
He waits to be seriously punished.  
As Satan and Crowley were.

God, instead, is calm. “You’re both very correct” She says gently. “I have been far too high up on my very high horse to accept such things before now, but now…” She smiles at Satan, “how about we run this world TOGETHER?” She gives Satan a new look, “I NEED your questions. Perhaps together, we can actually create a better humanity.”   
Satan looks unsure, “so I’m suddenly welcome up here?” He sounds a little sarcastic, but Aziraphale frankly doesn’t blame him.  
“Yes you are” God says, not taking His sarcasm to heart, which is new. , “I will even remove your consecrated ground restriction, so you no longer have to stand on that tiny patch of Hell” God looks down at the small patch of dried lava Satan is stood upon.  
Aziraphale can’t quite comprehend. “I’m an idiot” he admits out loud. “I never thought of Heaven as consecrated ground.”   
“Holiest place in the universe, burns worse then a hundred churches” Satan nods, as He takes God’s hand. “We Fallen Angels feel like were on fire up here, and not in the good, usual demonic way.”  
But…Crowley was up here, taking Aziraphale’s execution for him. He had to be up here for a prolonged period of time.  
Was….was he in awful pain and having to act as calm as an Angel who belonged up here all that time?

“Well you’re welcome up here now” God smiles, offering Her hand.  
Satan looks at Her, “you trust me?”  
“Yes, and I forgive and love you” God confesses. “As I should do to all my children. You’re right. You shouldn’t be known as more accepting then I am, and that’s how it currently stands. You take in my rejects, does that not say something?”  
Satan begins a smile, “its funny. Even though we’ve been talking about all this for almost two weeks, this all still sounds surprising.”  
“We’ve been arguing since the Beginning” God nods. “It surprises me to” Her hand is still offered out. “But if you let me, I’d like to spend the rest of forever making it up.”  
Satan smiles fully, “so…you and me, being God, TOGETHER?”  
“Why not? You can ask the questions, and I can answer them” God twinkles.  
Satan’s smile spreads into a grin, “yeah, alright” and takes Her hand. “Partner God’s it is.”

God sends a ripple through Satan, who shudders and then steps off His lava patch unsurely, and finds He’s fine, giving a little bounce on Heavenly ground.  
“Thank you” Satan smiles. “I guess this makes us an official team, eh?”   
“Yes” God glows. “I shall call a team meeting to inform the other Angels.”  
“And I guess I best gather the demons and tell them too” Satan says thoughtfully. He smiles at Her, “so I guess I’ll see you later?”  
“You’re welcome up here any time” God invites.   
“Alright” Satan, His black wings out and His black suit so dark its like looking at a void, “see ya then.”  
And off Satan goes, walking off with a click of His skull-topped cane.

God looks to Aziraphale, “are you alright dear? You’ve frozen.”  
Perhaps the shock has loosened Aziraphale’s tongue. Or perhaps its the new world order, but he just finds himself telling the truth. “Gabriel and the other Archangels tried to execute me for preventing Armageddon.”  
“WHAT?!” God jolts.   
“They said it was what you wanted. Part of your Great Plan.”  
“Well….as I said before Aziraphale, I would never want to harm my creations. I would never WANT Armageddon.”  
“I know that now” Aziraphale nods. “But Gabriel tried to put me to death by Hell fire for stopping it, under the banner of your orders.”  
”And just when I thought that Angel couldn’t get worse” God shakes Her head in dismay. She pauses, “but you’re fine, so, what happened?”  
“Crowley and I swapped bodies. He took my Hell fire, I took his holy water bath” Aziraphale explains.  
“HELL tried to kill a demon?! Hell doesn’t kill its own. Torture, sure, but the death penalty doesn’t exist down there, nor should it up here! Murder is a HUMAN thing. We celestial beings are above such things. If anyone was trying to kill anyone, in EITHER world, they were doing it behind the backs of Satan and I.”

Aziraphale, at this point, isn’t surprised. Seems the managers of Heaven and Hell were far more judgemental (for Heaven) and evil (for Hell) then their creators.   
“Well, that’s not the point” Aziraphale says. “Crowley was UP here, he walked on Heavenly ground for more then an hour, wouldn’t he of been in pain?”  
“Extreme pain I’m afraid” God tells sadly.  
Aziraphale shakes his head in amazement, “I owe that man so much more then my life at this point.”  
God gives Aziraphale a gentle pat on the elbow, “so go tell him” She smiles.  
Inspired, Aziraphale grins, “yes. Yes I will! Thank you Mother, and congrats on your peace!” he says, as he rushes towards the large spinning Earth model.  
“Good luck dear!” calls God.

The second Aziraphale arrives down on Earth, his new phone beeps. He hauls it out of his pocket.  
‘Irony, eh? Being called to Hell for some ‘staff meeting’. Assume this has something to do with the peace talks? Not sure how long I’ll be gone. Love you.’ The text from Crowley reads.  
Aziraphale looks at his pocket watch. He’s been gone an hour and a half. Time sure feels weird in Heaven.  
But this means Crowley will likely be gone a similar amount of time, to hear the same news.  
Which means.  
Aziraphale has, max, an hour and an half to pull a surprise together.

He’s gonna do something.  
He doesn’t know what yet, but it’s going to be AMAZING.  
He’s going to thank Crowley properly. For every time that demon has saved his butt, but mostly, through smiling through his pain, wearing Aziraphale’s own face in Heaven.  
Aziraphale is going to give Crowley the best reward EVER.  
He sets immediately to work!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blessings to all those who have left me comments and kudus, they light up my world :D


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for over 800 hits, I love you all :)

Chapter 9:  
Chuckling in disbelief, Crowley pushes into the bookshop with a jingle of the bell, “you back yet Angel?” he calls as he kicks the door gently shut. He’d kick himself if he damaged anything owned by his Angel. He’s carrying a new object in the crook of his arm.  
Aziraphale rounds a bookshelf, his chubby, beautifully pale cheeks are flushed red as if he’s been hard at work in some physical activity, and his eyes are twinkling with excitement. His usual coat is missing and the sleeves of his crisp white shirt are rolled up to the elbow.  
For Aziraphale, this is practical nudity.  
Crowley grins like the Cheshire Cat and tilts sideways, dropping his hip, his eyes shining behind his shades, “well well well, don’t you look fabulous?” he allows his eyes to wonder sexily up and down his beloved.  
Aziraphale flushes contently, “and you always look fabulous dear” he peers curiously at the new object, “whatcha got there?”  
“Oh, check this out!” Crowley grins, coming further in and brandishing the new object. “Hell gave me a trophy.” The new object is shaped like a classic devils pitchfork, black and stood on a base with a little gold plaque reading ‘inspirer of peace’.  
Aziraphale laughs brightly, “Oh isn’t that lovely!” he twinkles. “Well done dear.”

“Yeah” grins Crowley, looking rather proud of himself. “They even tried to promote me!”  
“Never!” Aziraphale muses.  
“Yeah, Beelzebub lost their position, along with all my other would-be killers. Apparently, execution is illegal in Hell” Crowley shrugs. “Go figure! I wish I’d have known that sooner. I could have been telling the Big Man Downstairs allllll kinds of stories!”  
“I’ll bet! Same goes for Heaven, as it turns out. Although Gabriel and the others can’t get more fired then they already are.”  
“Ha! I love it” Crowley shakes his head in amazement, “anyway, so they offered me Beelzebub’s position.”  
Aziraphale waves them inside so they can stop lurking in the doorway, and they chat on as they make their way over to their now almost landmark famous sofa.

“That’s amazing dear!” Aziraphale cheers. “I’m very proud. Did you take it?”  
“I would’da” nods Crowley. “I wouldn’t mind being the manager of Hell, certainly an upgrade! Only trouble is, the managers of Hell, ya know, sort of have to LIVE there, full time. No Earthly visits.”  
“Ah” Aziraphale frowns, all his joy draining out of him faster then a sudden cloud burst.  
“Which is why I turned it down!” Crowley quickly assures him. He smiles beautifully at his Angel, “I’m not leaving you for the world, Angel.”  
Aziraphale’s spirits immediately return! “Well, that’s quite alright then!” he glows.  
Crowley shines even from behind his shades.

The two flop down side by side on their now practically famous sofa, Crowley setting his new trophy and shades down on the coffee table before flopping himself across Aziraphale’s lap, who smiles warmly and begins running his fingers through Crowley’s hair.  
“You won’t believe who I got to meet today” Aziraphale tells as he strokes. “Satan! In human form!”  
”Funny, so did I, He gave me my award” chuckles Crowley. “Did you meet Him with God on the moon or something then?”  
Ah, so Crowley is aware Satan can’t walk in Heaven. Or least, not pain free anyway.

“No, He was in Heaven, stood on a tiny patch of dried lava, to simulate Hell, I suppose” Aziraphale tells casually. “I asked about it.”  
Crowley’s face suddenly drains.  
“Oh” he manages.

“Yes, oh” Aziraphale nods. He peers down at his beloved, “my dear, you must have been in so much pain.”  
“It wasn’t SO bad” Crowley grumbles, his yellow eyes staring away.  
Aziraphale gazes at him, “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I wanted to repay you.”  
“Oh Angel” Crowley sits in, scooting back a little so he can sit beside Aziraphale. “You don’t owe me nothing. There’s no debt here, m’kay? Just you being with me, loving me back, that’s all I ever wanted. So, ya know, consider me FULLY repaid.”  
“Well, I want to spoil you then” Aziraphale decides. “I want to give you all the love you’ve given me. I don’t want to hold back any more.”

Crowley’s eyebrows raise in curiosity.  
“So” Aziraphale realises he’s sweating. He gulps down his nerves. “I was wondering if you’d like to move in together.”  
Crowley’s eyes widen.  
“I miracled us a flat! Upstairs” Aziraphale nods above the bookshop. “Well, I mean, that’s what it was anyway, but I’d never actually USED it, so it was in quite a state. But I miracled us all the essentials. Kitchen, bathroom for hot baths and long showers, bedroom. I figured you’d want to do some yourself, so I left rooms for your plants, your office, anything else you fancied… Um…”  
Crowley is still staring at him. 

“You don’t have to!” Aziraphale quickly babbles. “If…if this is too fast, I can just use the flat, its no problem.”  
“Angel” Crowley finally speaks. “You were the one who said I went to fast for you.”  
“Well” Aziraphale blushes. “Back then things were unstable. I didn’t want to risk you. We’ve been through this, Crowley. Its not that I didn’t want you, or didn’t love you. I’d have happily moved in together three thousand years ago, if I didn’t think it dangerous. I was…I was trying to keep you safe.”  
Crowley sighs, “you could have just said ‘that would be dangerous for us both’. You didn’t have to imply I was rushing you.”  
“I know” Aziraphale admits sadly. “I should have been doing that from the Beginning. I said the most stupid things. I hurt you when I could have just calmly reminded you of our situation, but…I was too scared and too under Heaven’s thumb to do so.”

Crowley sighs and looks away, “seems we keep talking about this.”  
“Well of course” Aziraphale says.  
“But I said I forgave you. Why am I even bringing this up?” Crowley balls his fist in self-hatred.  
“Because I hurt you, and you can forgive, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to forget” Aziraphale informs him gently, reaching over and placing his hand over Crowley’s. “It’s okay for us to still talk about these things, Crowley. I didn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about this. There’s me speaking before I think again!” Aziraphale shakes his head in exasperation at himself. “But, I mean this;” he pauses to consider his next words carefully.  
He’s spent six thousand years saying the wrong thing.  
Finally, he’s going to say the right one.

“I beg your forgiveness Crowley, but I do not expect you to forget” Aziraphale chooses each word with care. “If you want to spend the next six thousand years discussing how much I’ve hurt you, then I’m here to listen, and I don’t say that with any sense of irony or exaggeration. As I said at the picnic, I’m willing to spend forever making this up to you. I WANT you to tell me how I’ve hurt you, so I can try to make it better. Don’t think for a moment you have to forget and move on, because you don’t have to. Any time you want to talk about the past, I’m here. Any time you want to focus on the future, I’m here, and any time you just want to see how drunk we can get within the next hour, I’m here. I’m here to listen to WHATEVER you want to talk about, whenever you need to talk about it.”  
Crowley has been watching his Angel intently, with wide, wondering eyes. “I just…I don’t want to drag down what we have now, you know? I don’t want to spend our whole new life talking about our old one.”  
“Well, that’s not very realist, is it dear?” Aziraphale smiles. “We’ll talk about how things were when we NEED to, all other times, we shall be too busy enjoying the now. Let’s say we’re strolling about the park in a years time, having a lovely day, enjoying our new lives, and we suddenly pass the bandstand. We’re both going to remember what happened there.”

Crowley gives a sad nod.  
“And if we want to spend ten minutes or heck, even an hour, talking through how bad that day was, then we can” Aziraphale assures gently. “Then, once that’s out of our systems, I’m sure we’ll smile, because hey, its over now! And go and get ice cream.”  
Crowley chuckles.  
“It’s true though!” Aziraphale twinkles. “There’s a difference between living constantly in the past and being triggered by places or phrases or what have you. That’s not dragging our relationship down, that’s healing old wounds, and isn’t that what couples are supposed to do? Heal each others wounds? Be there when the other needs support? I love you Crowley, and I want to hear about it when you’re sad, even if it’s me you’re sad about. If we can’t do that, how healthy can our relationship truly be?”  
Crowley smiles at him. Aziraphale loves when Crowley smiles. To him, its the most beautiful smile in the world.  
To him, Crowley is the most beautiful being in the world.

“I’d love to move in with you, my Angel.”  
Aziraphale beams all over, and leaps across the sofa, kissing Crowley happily upon his lips!  
Crowley laughs and kisses back, both of them silly and happy and finally -  
Free.

“We’ll get me all settled in then, I can help decorate!” Crowley says, excited about this now. “I can’t let you make EVERYTHING tartan.”  
Aziraphale flushes, “as if I would!” his eyes darting guilty. About half of everything he’s created in the new flat may or may not be tartan.  
“Ha, sure Angel” grins the demon, seeing right through his Angel. “And then tonight, we can go back to the Ritz, and finally finish our lunch.”  
“Perfect” Aziraphale smiles, dreamily.

**

Getting Crowley moved in is like…not Heaven, no.  
It’s better then Heaven.

Crowley miracles up two moving trucks and loads his many plants up, apparently worried that telelporting them over would somehow damage them.  
Into the brand new replica of Crowley’s plant room - now attached to the brand new flat above the same old Angelic bookshop - they go, getting settled by Crowley with sharp words about, “now you lot behave yourselves!” while Aziraphale laughs fondly.  
Crowley helps redecorate the flat. Whilst he appreciates the Angel’s efforts, everything is far too pastel! So the two word together to create an environment more suited for BOTH of them.

With the two of them making miracles together, there’s soon a brand new kitchen. With midnight sky wallpaper decorated with white stairs, accurate to the real night sky. The kitchen itself is Crowley’s style with a twist! The counter-tops are long, sleek and lean. Beautifully black with white sparkles engrained, so it too looks like the night sky.  
It has a two-seater table, snug in the corner. The seats have deep blue and white tartan seat cushions! “Tartan!” Aziraphale admires happily.  
Crowley laughs, “glad you like them!”

In the cupboards, he finds the kitchen is stocked with food enough to feed a King. In the above the head cupboards are filled with lovely black and white plates and matching silverware. In the corner cupboard are beautiful cups. There are five perfectly white ones that handle looks like Angel wings, and a five matching black ones that handle is shaped like the head of a pitchfork, and it has little horns on either side of the rim!  
Aziraphale chuckles fondly at them.  
The fridge is tall, black and sleek. The sink is gold. There’s a modern dishwasher, which Aziraphale finds has simple instructions drawn in pictures stuck on the front with a note that says, “for the Angel still using a dial-up phone in 2020.”  
Aziraphale laughs again! Crowley knows Aziraphale all too well. Aziraphale has literally NO idea about how to use modern technology like a dishwasher, and Crowley knows it!

Beside the kitchen, is the bedroom. It has the cutest bed! It has a white carpet and a bed with a duvet that’s spilt right down the middle. One half is white and the other black. On the black side is a pillow that says ‘demon’ and the white pillow says ‘angel.’ It’s a King sized bed built for two opposing sides, and Aziraphale finds it super cute! At the end of the bed is an Aziraphale style big soft squishy sofa in cream brown with powder blue tartan cushion that matches the Angel’s favourite tie. The sofa is facing a huge plasma screen TV that is attached to the wall. Underneath which is what must be Crowley’s DVD collection. Aziraphale recognises a few movies names that Crowley talks about, as well as some of his favourite TV show box sets, including the ‘Golden Girls’.  
Aziraphale has zero idea how to use a TV this fancy - or really any TV at all - but he expects Crowley will handle that part.

In the corner of the room is two soft brown armchairs with tartan patterns facing each other, flanked with a bookshelf on each side, and in the middle of the chairs is a tiny coffee table fit for the angels hot chocolate’s. Both bookshelves are packed to the gills with what Crowley KNOWS are Aziraphale’s favourite books.  
Aziraphale could cry he’s so pleased!

The next room is an exact double of Crowley’s office, with his throne-like red and gold high backed chair and his matching desk with its snake detail that faces the window with his place tape-recorder answer machine (that Crowley once used to trap Hastur) that Aziraphale is so familiar with.  
Goodness knows what Crowley even uses an office FOR. He doesn’t even do any office-like things. Maybe he just likes to hang out in it! Two glass double doors lead to the next room, where Aziraphale heads into, beaming. It’s Crowley’s entirely glass walled plant room! Complete with plants, and the mister, full and awaiting on a shelf.

There’s Crowley’s amazing bathroom, with its jacuzzi bathtub and separate seat-included shower, complete with towel because “it looks empty without one” shrugs Crowley. “Plus it will come in handy if we ever have human guests.”  
“Very efficient my dear” Aziraphale chuckles warmly, proud of his demon.

There’s also a cosy reading room which looks like a tiny version of Aziraphale’s bookshop! With a false fireplace emitting real heat, a big cosy arm chair, sofa, wine cabinet and bookshelves that reach from floor to ceiling all around, with a lovely rug, calmly pastel walls and a fluffy carpet. All in his warm, cosy colours with tartan cushions and soft fabric. There’s a table for his cups and everything! Its entirely Aziraphale’s own private library! The door has a sign that says, “reading, go away.” Aziraphale laughs at that too!  
The hallway that connects all the doors has Aziraphale’s choice of carpet, and his favourite pictures on the wall - and by pictures, he means pictures of them!  
Using their memories and a few miracles, the two have created snap shots of the two of them over the years. The largest one in the middle of the hallway is a picture of them on Eden’s wall, Aziraphale’s wing over Crowley’s head as the first rain ever arrives. It’s not painted with oils or drawn with a picture, it looks exactly like a photograph, as if they had a secret photographer with a modern camera behind them at the time.

All the other pictures are much the same! They all look like real 2020 photographs. Fully coloured and so full of life it looks like their photograph selves might leap off the print. There’s them sharing oysters in Rome. There’s Crowley handing Aziraphale the bag of books in the wreckage of the church. Them watching a play with Shakespeare, the writer of the play their watching, stood at their side. Them stood in a 60’s bar sharing a drink. Them stood either side of little Adam Young, holding a hand each, their wings spread wide, Aziraphale with his flaming sword in hand and Crowley with his chunk of the Bentley. Finally, its them now; Aziraphale planting a happy kiss upon Crowley’s cheek as Crowley proudly holds up a set of keys marked ‘house keys’, showing off the day they finally moved in together, and celebrating their new status as a couple.

“It’s all so lovely” Aziraphale admires with a happy sigh.  
“It’s a wonderful home” Crowley agrees with a smile.  
“And I can already sense the love in it” Aziraphale twinkles.  
Crowley chuckles, “I STILL find it weird that you can sense that, but not the love I was pouring your way for six thousand years.”  
“Shush you!” Aziraphale grins. “I shall have you know, I sensed it perfectly. Right from day one.”  
Crowley cocks an eyebrow, “but let me guess, you didn’t say anything to protect me.”  
“I couldn’t let Hell kill you just because of my selfless desire to be with you” Aziraphale nods firmly.

“So, you really suffered in silence all those years right along with me, hu?” Crowley almost admires.  
“Yes” admits the Angel for the first time, before smiling at his love, “But neither one of us have to pine or long or be in pain any more.”  
Crowley gives one of his beautiful smiles, and kisses his Angel softly upon his rose petal pink lips. “I love you Aziraphale.”  
“And I love you, Crowley” Aziraphale says right back.  
For there is no need for hesitation.  
Not any more.

**

The Ritz is once again a wonderful place. The atmosphere is beautiful and elegant. Their table cloth is crisp, white and clean, and their drinks are divine. 

Lunch is fabulous and desert is even better.  
But nothing is quite as wonderful.  
No Earthly delight can compare.  
To just being here.  
Together.

No call from Hell to tear them apart.  
No messages from Heaven to distract them.  
Just them, the Ritz, and their mutual gazing.

Then, comes their after desert drink, their champagne that bubbles like the stars twinkle.  
“To MY world” Crowley shines at Aziraphale from behind his shades, as ever, managing to gaze lovingly at his Angel even from behind those black out shades.  
They do a terrible job at hiding his love-spilling eyes!  
Aziraphale twinkles inside and out, “to MY world” he repeats, gazing lovingly right back, as the two join hands and finally hold hold across the table.  
What Aziraphale has been wanting to do on their first Ritz dinner.

As the two clink their glasses together with a soft ‘ting.’


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:  
Living with Crowley is like a dream.  
I’ve noticed he has the CUTEST human habits! Far more then I do.

Our first night together I noticed that he brushes his teeth at night whilst watching YouTube videos on his phone, sat resting on the bathroom windowsill beside the sink.  
We crawled into the same bed for the first time, but I wasn’t the slightest bit nervous. In fact, it felt quite the opposite.  
It felt like I had finally come home after a long, long trip. Like here, beside my darling Crowley, was where I was supposed to be all along.  
And, with all I’ve learned about the TRUE ineffable plan, it seems that feeling was correct all along!

In the morning, I eat breakfast whilst Crowley gazes at me. Then he does more human activities, like showering, brushing his teeth, styling his hair, and getting dressed manually rather then just miracling himself into freshness, the way I do.  
I start on my daily activates, rearranging books or reading them. When I can be bothered open the shop, I chase off customers. Crowley yells at his plants, I can hear him all the way downstairs.  
“GROW. BETERERRRRRRR!!!!” I can hear him yell.  
I laugh every time!

We lounge about together or go on dates. We play board games or Crowley introduces me to more movies or TV shows. I find them quite enjoyable, actually! Still not as good as a book, but not bad.  
I find out on the evening of our first night living together that Crowley will eat popcorn if you stick him in front of one of his favourite movies. He munches at it absent-mindedly, as if he’s not eating just to eat the way I do, but rather because he’s made the very human connection between watching entertainment and eating popcorn. Like he’s seen humans do it and figured that’s just what he’s SUPPOSED to do.  
Bless his socks.  
Of course, it would be rude not to join him! I munch happily along at his side.

By day two, Crowley has taken himself the oven, determined to teach himself how to cook. He says he doesn’t want us to just miracle up meals for me or to always go out to eat, but he wants to cook things FOR me.  
I can’t say I’m not flattered!  
So I sit at the breakfast bar and gaze lovingly at him while he takes his first baby steps into the world of cooking the human way. He watches tutorials on YouTube and picks up pretty quickly.

Just like myself and my fellow Angels, demons have demonic intellect. We can both learn new skills and understand new things at probably twenty times the speed of humans. I shall never stop being proud of myself for finding the location of the not-so-Anti-Antichirst.  
Crowley is no different. Within three eggs, he’s gone from exploding them to cracking them open with perfect accuracy. Within two pancakes, he’s gone from one so black it looks like its been in the wars, to a perfect one, which I assure him is delicious! Because it is.  
If he’s this good now, he’ll be Ritz level within days and frankly I look forward to it!

At night, Crowley undresses and puts on pyjamas the human way. I change with a click of my figures into my Victorian style long gown and cap.  
Crowley chuckles at me as he crawls into bed, placing his smart phone on the bedside table, “you realise it’s the twenty first century, right Angel?”  
I give him a ‘yeah, and?’ glance and Crowley grins hopelessly at me.

Sharing a bed is defiantly the best bit of living with Crowley.  
I sit and pretend to read, but mostly I like to gaze rather shamelessly at him. I watch him toss and turn peacefully in his sleep. He mumbles my name and smiles occasionally, like he’s dreaming about me, and I just melt inside.  
When morning comes, I watch him slowly come awake. First his beautiful golden snake eyes open, then he stretches without getting up and grumbles about having to get up, all whilst I watch, silent and content. Then he sits up, yawning and stretches properly before finally smiling at me, his beautiful eyes awake and his lovely lips as tempting as always.  
“M’orning Angel” he greets me, and suddenly I feel like the luckiest being in creation all over again.

We go on like this, so happy we’ve reached bliss. Sometimes Crowley goes out to make a little harmless mischief just because he misses it. I often do the same, heading out to do minor miracles. Like when I strolled past that homeless man on the street the other day and the wind miraculously blew a winning lottery ticket right into his lap.  
What a lucky day for him! One which, I of course had nothing to do with.

After doing our little tasks, Crowley and I always find ourselves back on our sofa. The fire burning and the wine flowing.  
“I took down Facebook today” Crowley hiccups. “Millions of people are pissssssssssssed! I still haven’t put it back up.”  
Aziraphale laughs fondly, “of course you did, you bad boy. I made sure a homeless man won the lottery today.”  
”S-soundsss abou right” Crowley nods, slugging down more wine as he talks.

Two months become three. Three become four, and everything is as it should have been all along.  
I find myself wondering about proposing! I know most couples wait at least a year, if not more, but Crowley and I aren’t most couples.  
Human couples do that so they can see if their sure about one another, and there’s no question about that when it comes to Crowley.  
Human couples often tend to live together to see if they work well co-habiting.  
Well, that question is soon answered!

Crowley and I already have a wonderful system worked out. We take turns with every thing. Monday’s, I do the miracles. Miracle-cleaning up our wine glasses and washing up. Miracle washing and drying our clothes. Seeing off customers (sometimes with minor miracles, sometimes just with pure talking skill). All the household things, really; garage taking out, getting mud off Crowley’s shoes, things like that. Tuesday, Crowley does it all, and so on. One person a day.  
Neither of us does a thing Sunday’s, we call in a “holy day of rest” and then laugh.

We don’t have to worry about human annoyances like one using the bathroom longer the other because we just take turns.  
Crowley does all the cooking, but I handle all the money from the bookshop, balancing the cheque books and what not. So its still even.  
Did I mention Crowley’s cooking standards have flown past the Ritz and reached a point where every bite is better then Heaven? No? Well it is.  
Point is, I know Crowley and I share a house well. I know we’re right for each other. I know we both want to be together forever.  
So, why wait?

Fully decided, I prepare!  
I measure Crowley’s ring finger on sight alone (thanks again to my Angelic Intellect) and begin my work.  
Shall I miracle him up a ring, or buy one?  
I circle human jewellery shops, but none of them seem special enough for Crowley. I tell the jewellery shop workers I’d want something a little more unique. They tell me to look online.

Oh, good Lord.

I haven’t a clue how to look online for such things. There’s exactly one computer in the whole bookshop, so old its nearly steam powered. I keep my records and do my accounting on it, but that’s about it. I’ve never even bloody USED the internet.  
I could ask Crowley. He can navigate internet like its an actual location.  
But I really don’t fancy seeming suspicious.  
Hmmm…

Month four of living together, I slide up to Crowley, sitting down beside him on the soda.  
“I’ve been thinking, perhaps it would be nice to actually celebrate our birthdays for a change” I say as casually as possible.  
Crowley, lounged on the sofa in his usual limps-everywhere position, raises an eyebrow. His shades are off, so I get to see his beautiful eyes. Always a treat. “We’ve never bothered before. Celebrating birthdays is a human concept anyway.”  
“I know” I’m trying very hard indeed to stay calm and casual. “But it gives us an excuse to buy each other presents and get drunk?”  
Crowley sits upright with intrigue, “I’m in!”  
I laugh at him.

“Well” I glow, happy this plan is working well. “I suppose we best PICK birthdays then, since were we both created long before today’s modern calender.”  
“Too true” nods Crowley, pausing thoughtfully.  
The whole not-end-of-the-world thing happened in August. It’s now the first week of December, but Crowley and I have never bothered with Christmas either. Who gave the humans the idea that Christ was born December 25th anyway? So inaccurate.  
“Perhaps I should go for a spooky birthday” Crowley grins. “October? Oooh, how about Halloween! I mean, I have NO idea if that’s even remotely accurate to when I was created or not, but fuck it, right? It’s my modern-calender birthday, it can be where I want it to be.”  
“Wonderful dear!” I encourage. “Suits you. Halloween it is.”

Crowley gazes lovingly at me the same way he always does, “I think you should go for Spring time” he says, “I think May would be perfect” he reaches over and runs his fingers through my blonde curls, “My lamb.”  
I chuckle, pink in the cheeks and warm all over, “why thank you! May it is then. How about…the fifth? Seems like as nice as a birthday as any.”  
“Perfect” Crowley smiles lovingly. “I guess this means I best start looking for presents for you! I might look online, just for inspiration.”  
I feel my own eyes shine!  
That’s exactly what I was hoping he’d say.

“Brilliant idea dear!” I applaud. “Actually” I put on my most relaxed, casual face. “Could you show me how to do that too?”  
Crowley looks surprised.  
“Just for inspiration!” I hurriedly add. “I mean, I’m easy to buy for. Any book will be welcome. With you, I might need to get a little more creative, unless I want this whole place filled with plants.”  
“True” Crowley says, his face soothing like this seems like a logical explanation. “Alright, I’ll trade you internet lessons, IF you let me upgrade that dinosaur you call a computer.”  
I laugh, “Its a deal!”

So, with a click of Crowley’s fingers, my ancient computer is upgraded to the smooth, sleek, fast-running latest model, probably selling for at least a thousand pounds if not more, but snapped into existence for free.  
I do so love miracles.  
So Crowley sits with me and patiently teaches me how to use the sleek, slim keyboard. How to know what I’m looking at on the elegant, large, crystal clear screen. How to manoeuvre the mouse.  
I am terribly slow at this. I just don’t take to it despite my advantage over human minds. It seems I’m just not built for handling modern technology.

But Crowley remains patient. He doesn’t expect me to learn it all in one go. We do a bit one day and a bit the next, taking regular sessions like a school class, with breaks for warm drinks and meals in between.  
He doesn’t just show me how to use the internet. He also shows me how to do my accounting and keep a log of all my books, so I can still do that at my leisure do. Bless his heart.

After four days, I’m still no master, but I know how to Google decent search phrases and how to navigate through search results. I’m not always brilliant at it, but I can get by.  
“Okay, now you, shoo” I wave Crowley off on the filth day. “You’ve been very helpful and I love you more then life itself, but no spoiling your own surprise!”  
Crowley laughs, “yes sir!” and goes wondering off upstairs.  
And I begin searching for inspiration. 

*************

I’ve decided on the perfect ring! It’s a beautiful gold that looks like a tiny snake wrapping around itself, its one visible eye a small yet very sparkly diamond. I saw a picture of a similar snake ring online and added the diamond when I miracled it up.  
I hope Crowley likes it!

Since Christmas has no meaning to us, I’ve decided to give it meaning by using it to propose! I take him to the Ritz, which is open for a few hours, thankfully.  
There’s a huge beautiful Christmas tree up in the corner and classy fair lights hung up across the ceiling so it looks like the night sky. It’s all so gloriously beautiful, bright and humming with Christmas joy.  
We enjoy our meal as usual, then Crowley says, “I ordered you a desert. Crepes, miraculously added to the menu.”  
“Aw, thank you dear!” I glow. Crowley never does fail to disappoint! 

Then, I spot two waiters arriving. One carrying pre-poured champaign as I arranged, the other carrying a plate.  
Here we go!  
The first waiter puts down our drinks at the same time the second waiter places the plate of crepes before me, but I don’t even look at them, I’m staring at Crowley’s glass, waiting for him to notice.  
I watch with giddy glee as Crowley says, “well?” and raises his champaign glass expectantly.  
“Well what?” I ask.  
He nods downwards, towards my plate.  
I look down.

“Oh!” we both say at once.  
Crowley has spotted the ring at the bottom of his glass.  
At the exact same moment I’ve noticed the ring placed in my crepes.  
We both look at each other.  
And burst out laughing!

“Great minds eh Angel?” Crowley beams.  
“Indeed!” I giggle, fetching the beautiful engagement ring out of my crepes. I gently clean it with a napkin and admire it. It’s a beautiful golden number, round and imprinted with a pair of Angel wings, along with the words ‘my Angel.’  
“Oh Crowley” I coo, as Crowley, who has fished his own ring out of his glass and is drying it on his own napkin, grins.  
“A little snake!” he admires. “Aziraphale, I love it.”  
We both share a moment of pure, loving, endless gazing.

“So” I say, casually. “I suppose that’s a yes then?”  
Crowley gives that wonderful, short, sharp laugh of his, “ha! Yeah, I’ll marry you Angel. If you’ll marry me?”  
“Most certainly!” I giggle, as I slide my ring on. Crowley does the same, and grins beautifully at me.  
I can’t believe it! I’m engaged!

********

Crowley knows having a traditional wedding was important to me, even if I wouldn’t admit it out loud. So, despite my protests, we book our wedding in a church.  
With peace declared between both our worlds, there are a few demon acquaintances of Crowley’s there and a few Angel acquaintances of mine. Along with The Them, and Newt and Anathema of course.  
Because I simply won’t have Crowley in pain at his own wedding, we do the only sensible thing.  
I princess carry him down the isle, of course!  
Everyone gets a laugh out of that.

At the alter, Crowley stands on a pavement flab we borrowed from a skip so that he can stand comfortably, looking beautiful in his stunning black suit. And force, I don’t mind not wearing any tartan in my polar opposite pure white number!  
We’re married by a Priest who thankfully doesn’t ask too many questions about why Crowley would be carried down the isle, and share our kiss as confetti - black and white, naturally - is thrown all around us.  
Then, naturally, I princess carry Crowley out! He protests the whole time for his pride, of course. Whilst I giggle at him.

Now, life is as it always should have been. We’ve been married for two years and we couldn’t be happier. Crowley still likes to make harmless mischief and I still like to do at least a miracle a day, but otherwise, we spend all our time together, and just when I’m sure I couldn’t get any happier -  
“Angel” Crowley pipes up as I eat our ‘happy two year anniversary’ cake.  
“Hmm?” I say happily through a mouthful of sweet frosting.  
“What’s your opinion” Crowley gulps like he’s nervous. “On starting a family?”  
I drop my fork. It clatters onto my plate so loudly its painful, but I’m too wide eyed with joy to care.  
“You mean” I squeak with excitement. “A baby?”  
“Well I’m hardly gonna mean an aardvark” Crowley laughs at me.

I take a very deep, calming breath.  
“Crowley” I’m trying to stop myself exploding from sheer joy. “I would love to have a baby with you.”  
Crowley beams a smile so wide and so bright that it tops all his others thus far. Expect maybe for the one he wore on our wedding day.  
“Well then” he leans back in his dining room chair cockily, “let’s get cracking then. Or, what is it your always saying? Get a ‘wiggle’ on?” he wiggles his eyebrows saucily at the word.  
“It’s a perfectly reasonable expression!” I argue through my helpless, hopeless giggling!

This is it, I find myself thinking as we laugh together.  
I have found Heaven.

**The End**

Update 09/04/2020: This book now has a sequel! Check out Book 2, 'Little Wings' here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23562583/chapters/56527759

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This book now has a sequel! Check out Book 2, 'Little Wings' here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23562583/chapters/56527759

**Author's Note:**

> Any and ALL feedback is always welcome :D the comments literally make my day, every day. Thank you to anyone who so much as spares my work a glance <3  
> This book now has a sequel! Check out Book 2, 'Little Wings' here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23562583/chapters/56527759


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